14 Nov 2018
DSTA engineers shared their innovations and knowledge at the inaugural RippleUX Singapore National Coding and Robotics Competition 2018 on 10 November 2018.
Themed ‘Unmanned Vehicles and Artificial Intelligence’, the competition aimed to promote interest in artificial intelligence, computing and science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in Singapore. It was jointly organised by Nanyang Polytechnic and the Uavionics Society of Nanyang Technological University and education service provider ripplecreate.
Participants ranging from as young as seven years old to as old as their twenties took part in hands-on challenges on the navigation and programming of robots and drones, as well as presented the use cases of the technologies.
DSTA engineers Charles Ng and Hia Lee Kee lent their expertise by serving as judges for some of the challenges.
“It is encouraging to see that the students, particular those in primary schools, have a good grasp of knowledge about drones.They have realistic and practical expectations of how drones can be used in the future,” shared Lee Kee.
To expose students to real-world technologies, DSTA engineers also shared about the technology projects that they work on at a showcase held in conjunction with the competition. These included drone analytics and innovations, and cybersecurity for mobile devices.
When the competition came to a close, Director (Cyber Technology) Paul Tan presented the prizes to the winning robotics teams.
“The competition was a good learning experience for us. We managed to fix and program the robot to work in less than an hour, which was very exciting,” said 12-year-old Ng Qi Xiang from Catholic High School, whose team took part in the junior category of the robotics challenge.