NEWS: Battle of the bots

THE atmosphere was intense. For the parents, it was as if they were watching a critical football match, or the final concluding episode of a soap opera, complete with unexpected twists.

Battling ‘bots’ called to mind a mini version of Transformers, and cries of triumph and loss filled the air at the CTWorkshop Battle Bot Challenge 2009.

The knockout competition between Lego robots was organised by Children’s Technology Workshop (CTWorkshop) Malaysia at Bangsar Village II in Kuala Lumpur recently.

Last year’s winner, ‘Team X’ — consisting of Choy Wai Kit and Aaron Gibson from ELC International School — once again emerged as champions in the seven-to-nine years old category.

Under Category B (age 10-14), Benjamin Koh and Kevin Phung — team ‘Dark Void’ — from SK Taman Megah fought a tough battle before knocking out the competition.

“We never expected ourselves to reach the finals, what more becoming the winners!” enthused Benjamin.

“We would like to thank our instructors from CTWorkshop who had given us much valuable experience through creative technology programmes that helped us in this challenge,” said Kevin.

Kevin’s mother, Lee Swee Chin, said that while she was pleased to see him win, it was the participation in such activities that was important in a child’s learning.

“Aside from academics, I think it’s important that parents should expose their children to outside activities that could help strengthen the child’s thinking capabilities just like this challenge,” said Lee.

The challenge, which was held over two days, saw over 40 teams from both local and international schools participate, including Alice Smith, the Australian International School, Garden International School, Mont Kiara International School, Sri KDU, SK Bukit Damansara, SJK (C) Yuk Chai, and The Children’s House.

The teams of two had to battle it out in two stages — the group stage and the knockout stage — where participants had to strategically design and create a ‘bot’, or vehicle, using Lego parts and pieces that is strong enough to withstand challenges from other teams.

The bots were driven by motors and powered by a programmer.

CTWorkshop director and competition organiser Nina Adlan Disney said that she was impressed with the creativity, skills, designs and teamwork displayed by the contestants.

”This challenge is not just about competing, but it’s also about having fun and I think that’s important,” said Nina.

She also said that she hoped the challenge could further strengthen participants’ critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork.