Indian students take part in robot building competition in Australia

Over 1,000 students from various countries, including India, will participate in a three-day robot building competition in Australia this week.

Students from around the world including the US, Singapore, Taiwan, China, India and Australia will participate in Regional First Robotics competition to be held in Sydney Olympic Park.

The event has been organised with collaboration of Macquarie University, Google, Ford, AndyMark, SalesForce, Autodesk, Rockwell Automation, BAE Systems and Boeing.

The robot building contest has been organised to celebrate and inspire love of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in children, Macquarie University said in a statement.

This year’s First Robotics Competition (FRC) will be held on March 17 and is said to be the biggest contest with nearly 50 teams competing to see which robots can catapult boulders and scale obstacles to ‘conquer’ an opponent’s tower, it said.

The competition is a culmination of six weeks of teamwork that include designing, building and programming robots to enter the event.

In order to stimulate creative thinking and design, all teams worked with the same construction materials and control system components to build their robot, according to the statement.

“It’s one thing to know how to build a robot that can complete a set of criteria in a game, but we also want to equip these kids to have the skills to lead a team, and to collaborate with their growing network of peers to tackle bigger, real-world issues with the skills they’ve picked up along the way,” said Australia Regional Director Luan Heimlich.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) would add USD 57.4 billion to the Australia’s GDP over the next 20 years.

Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor S Bruce Dowton said:

“Almost half of all employers expect requirements for STEM-qualified employees to increase in the next five years alone.”

Continued education in this space is vitally important to ensure Australia’s workforce will have the ability to support future industries, Dowton said.