Chancellor State Secondary College’s RoboKnights were awarded the Breakthrough Award at the Asia Pacific Open Championship 2022 robotics tournament held from June 3rd – 5th. Broadcasting from the University of the Sunshine Coast, the team competed in the virtual tournament which showcased their display of coding, engineering and ingenuity.
The CSC Roboknights were the only team from Queensland representing Australia at this elite STEM competition, part of the First Lego League Challenge Virtual 2021-2022 Cargo Connect season, that focused on finding innovative solutions to connect essential goods to the community.
The Breakthrough Award that the team received celebrates a team that made significant progress in their confidence and capability in both the Robot Game and Innovation Project and are a shining example of excellent Core Values. They demonstrate that they understand that what they discover is more important than what they win.
On Robot Performance, the team’s score was #3 in the Australia field and #11 highest amongst what was an incredibly tough global competiton.
This tournament was a culmination of nearly 12 months hard work, with the team showcasing their innovative solution (R.E.S.T Robots Efficiently Stacking Trucks) for supply chain logistics. Team Captain, Elliot Mitchell wrote that,
“This solution was designed specifically for large supermarkets in mind with much consultation with the Woolworths E-Store management and technical provider, TakeOff Technologies and with University of the Sunshine Coast’s Prof. Umer Izhar amongst other industry experts.”
This is a great example of how learning robotics can teach not only the computing and coding knowledge needed for programming, but also creates the wider knowledge needed to understand how to approach solutions to complex problems. For these young coders it meant understanding the worldwide economic issues and concerns facing the global supply chain.
Competitions such as these demonstrate the ability for technology to act as a vehicle for building friendships and community. Competing virtually, these students were still able to connect with like-minded students from Europe, Thailand, China, New Zealand and many more countries – creating lasting friendships. The language of technology and creativity has the ability to cross cultures, languages and borders.
After 12 months of hard work the team can relax until the next season begins!