"Fiery Dragon" Blazes to Victory in Robocon 2008 Hong Kong Contest

It was all systems go for School of Engineering (SENG) students on Sunday, 22 June 2008 when two SENG teams scooped three awards, including the championship, at the Robocon 2008 Hong Kong contest held at the Hong Kong Science Park .

Ten teams from five local universities participated in the battle of innovative automatons, organized by Radio Television Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Computer Society and the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers. Now in its 7th year, this annual competition requires university student teams to design their own robot. Each team’s machine must then race against the others to complete a number of tasks, providing hands-on experience of engineering and information technology applications.

Victory this year was especially sweet for winning team Fiery Dragon, which a year ago gained the Engineering Award and was the second runner-up in the 2007 contest. Along with the overall championship title, Fiery Dragon also received the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Best Team Spirit Award.

“We create our robots with multi-functions,” said Fiery Dragon team member Tony Cheung. “We tried to include a ‘tennis racket’ in our robots so that it can pick up the objects steadily and gain points for winning the contest. We came up with this idea when we played tennis together!”

Team leader of Fiery Dragon Frank Shen said requirements for the 2008 contest were very tough. “Actually, we faced many challenges when we built our robot in the early stage. However, we overcame all these difficulties and won the championship at last. It is really exciting for all of us.”

SENG’s Hermes team took this year’s second runner-up award. Hermes team member Shi Jiahui said it was a valuable experience to participate in the event. “Not only can we apply what we have learnt into practice, but we can also exchange our ideas with students from different disciplines.”

Students from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Computer Engineering Program and Department of Mechanical Engineering participated in the two SENG teams. Valuable support was also provided by HKUST’s Design and Manufacturing Services Facility, Prof Zexiang Li of the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, and Prof Lilong Cai of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Fiery Dragon will now represent Hong Kong in the 7th ABU Asia-Pacific Robocon contest to be held in Pune, India , in late August. The winning team is going to compete with teams from 25 countries and regions.

ABU Robocon was an international event launched in 2002 by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. The contest aims to create friendship and promote exchange of experience in engineering and information technology among young people from different countries and regions.