ASIJ students steer their robot during the VEX Robotics Competition. ASIJ
The American School in Japan (ASIJ) hosted its second VEX Robotics Competition on November 9 with the leadership of high school science teacher and Robotics Club leader Don Chambers.
Six international schools sent teams to join ASIJ for the competition, including the Thai-Chinese School in Bangkok, Taipei American School, KAIS International School Tokyo, and three schools from Hawaii—Kohala High School, Waiakea High School, and Waialua High School.
ASIJ also welcomed several special guests. Robin Bradbeer, Director of the Marine Science and Engineering Laboratory at City University Hong Kong, is a scholar-in-residence at ASIJ for six weeks, working with Advanced Physics and Marine Studies classes to build underwater robots. She has also been busy introducing robotics to ASIJ’s middle school students, and encouraging creative building projects in the kindergarten.
Ms Bradbeer was one of the competition’s judges along with ASIJ parent Tadahiro Kawada, who is the head of Kawada Industries Inc., an innovative leader in the robotics field. They were joined by Art Kimura from NASA Space Consortium, and Lem Fuggit, an ASIJ alumni parent and renowned robotics writer and blogger.
Both the students who entered their hand-built robots into the event and the spectators had an amazing time. The excitement in the room was palpable as students controlled the robots through a variety of challenging games where they worked in alliances to score points on a complex field. One of ASIJ’s high school teams was honoured to receive the Excellence Award for the second year in a row, which qualifies the school to compete in the VEX Robotics World Championship in Orlando, FL in April 2011. The middle school team also won one of the judges’ awards for quickly adapting their robot after major mechanical failure.
In the spring, Ms Bradbeer will be returning to ASIJ to help the school host a MATE Underwater Robotics Competition with the use of its 25-metre indoor pool. The school is not only excited about the way in which its robotics program is continuing to enhance the ASIJ curriculum, but is also looking forward to the energy and excitement that the event brings to campus.
— MATT WILCE
