EdUHK’s “The Craftsman” receives Best Institute Entity Award in Robocon Hong Kong 2022

Congratulations to The Craftsman for obtaining the Best Institute Entity Award in the Robocon Hong Kong 2022. The 14-member team representing EdUHK entered the “Robocon Hong Kong 2022 Contest”, an annual competition organised by the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation. The competition aims to arouse public interest in using engineering and IT knowledge to encourage the design and construction of robots, particularly among university and secondary school students.

A total of 14 teams from eight higher institutions competed in the event. Each participating team was required to use their engineering and IT knowledge to design two AI-enabled robots for the final competition held on 26 June. t the final event, robots made by the 14 teams competed in a simulated game of Lagori, a sport from the Indian subcontinent that is played between two teams. In the simulated Lagori game, one of the two I-enabled robots was designed to throw a ball at a pile of five cylindrical sponge blocks of different sizes to knock them down, while the other robot was responsible for stacking the five blocks back into a column.

The Department of Mathematics and Information Technology (MIT) and the Department of Science and Environmental Studies (SES) supports a Robotic Team where students from the two departments as well as other departments at FLASS can join and apply the knowledge acquired at their programmes to design robots and enter external competitions. This year, the students named their team The Craftsman in English and 魯師 (Lou Si) in Cantonese for the Robocon 2022 contest. While the backbone of this year’s team was made up of students studying the Bachelor of Education (Honours) (Secondary) – Information and Communication Technology (BEd(S)-ICT) programme, the rest of the team was made up of students taking other programmes at MIT and SES.

Jimmy Chan Ming-kit, a fourth-year BEd(S)-ICT student, is the team leader of The Craftsman. “To highlight our identity as students from an education-focused university, we named our team The Craftsman in English and 魯師 (Lou Si) in Cantonese this year. The ‘Lou’ is taken from ‘Lou Baan’ (魯班) (c. 507–444 BC), the legendary master craftsman and inventor, and the father of Chinese carpentry from the Zhou Dynasty. The Cantonese pronunciation of teachers (老師) is also ‘Lou Si’. In other words, 魯師 and 老師 are homonyms in Cantonese,” he explained. Jimmy believes the positive image of an educational institution, as symbolised by the team name, helped the team to take home the Best Institute Entity Award.

This year marks the third time EdUHK has taken part since its debut in 2019 and its second participation in 2021. With his strong interest in robot design, Jimmy didn’t hesitate to join the Robotic Team when he started his BEd(S)-ICT programme in 2019. He discovered great fun and excitement throughout the Robocon 2022 competition, where he could apply programming knowledge learnt from his BEd(S)-ICT studies to design the robots. On top of it, he was drawn by the strong spirit of solidarity shown by The Craftsman.

“Unlike other universities that have engineering disciplines, EdUHK is indisputably at a disadvantageous position when entering a competition that demands IT and engineering knowledge. However, a strong team spirit helped us overcome this shortcoming. Members were very motivated to draw on other resources and suggest solutions to problems. While students from MIT were strong at programming and circuit integration, students from SES were responsible for the mechanical design of the robots. We complemented each other well. Our members are creative and at the same time tolerant of other members in making mistakes,” Jimmy said.

Dr Bill Yeung Chi-ho, Associate Professor and Associate Head (Research and Postgraduate Studies) of SES, is an advisor to the Robotic Team. “Although EdUHK does not offer bachelor’s degrees in pure science or engineering, our students with majors in ICT education, mathematics education and science education are equipped with enough knowledge and skills when it comes to assembling robots to enter the competition. Indeed, the Robotic Team also welcomes students from other disciplines such as arts and music to contribute what they can to inspire further improvements for the robots,” Dr Yeung said.

Besides hard knowledge and skills, what the physicist appreciated the most from the Robotic Team was their initiative, passion and persistence in solving every problem during the design and construction of the robots. “This is indeed a big real-life STEM project which relies strongly on students’ creativity, problem-solving and collaboration skills. I really appreciate all the effort contributed by every team member whenever we enter this interesting competition,” Dr Yeung said.

Organised by the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, co-organised by the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers and supported by the Hong Kong Computer Society, the Robocon Hong Kong contest has given out awards for the Champion, first and second runner-up, Best Engineering, Best Performance, Best Team Spirit and Best Institute Entity. The winning team represented Hong Kong in the “Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Robot Contest 2022” held in New Delhi, India in August this year. This event serves as a platform for young people in the Asia Pacific region to exchange their experiences when it comes to developing robots, and learn more about the cultures of different countries and places from each other.

Members of The Craftsman:

You can also watch the following videos:

1. Award-presentation: video link
2. A game between the CUHK and EdUHK teams: video link