On Sept. 5 in Taipei, elementary, middle-school and high-school children from ages 10 to 18 will exhibit their creativity and problem-solving skills -- and also compete for a national robotics championship -- at the World Robot Olympiad, a robot-design competition for the Asia-Pacific region, the National Taiwan Science Education Center said.
"By simplifying the complex technical issues of robotics, we distill the process down to core issues of problem-solving and we allow children to engage in hands-on learning as early as the third grade," said Johnson Jan of K. Kingdom, the local company working with Lego's educational division.
Using Lego blocks and a program designed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) called Mindstorms, competitors will devise their own robots within a specified period of time, programming them to overcome obstacles and compete in activities like wrestling and soccer. A creative-design category gives middle-school and high-school participants free rein to construct robots that fit in with this year's theme -- competitive sports.
PHOTO: LU CHUN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Winners of the Sept. 5 event will go on to represent the nation in Singapore in November at the international competition.
The Olympiad began as a Korean competition that was designed by academics and educators, according to Jan. The competition expanded to become a regional and international one five years ago. This year, children from 14 nations are expected to participate, including China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Russia and Australia.
Lego blocks were chosen by the Olympiad as the basic material for the robot contest because of their child-friendly design and educational value, said Sandra Googan, Asia Pacific manager of the Lego Educational Division.
"In the 25 years since Lego established its educational division, we've made it our particular mission to engage children in their own education," she said.
Googan said that Lego's collaboration with MIT and other universities has been successful in creating a set of classroom materials. Further collaboration with government officials and educators worldwide has brought about the wide promotion of Lego's educational philosophy, she said.
"Lego and Mindstorms materials have already become standard curriculum staples in countries like Japan and Singapore," Jan said.
"In Taiwan, we've been working mostly with science education centers like the center, and with select schools," he said.
Teacher-training sessions and classes in robotics for children are held at the center, and drills for the Olympiad are held at other locations across the country, Jan said.
"As the main sponsor of the event, we're paying out of pocket to send Taiwanese representatives to Singapore," he added.
"We hope to gain more government and private support for our mission in the future," Jan said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard