| Azlan Othman |
SEVEN students from various schools in the country and four mentors from Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB) left for Washington DC, the United States for the 2017 first Global Robotic Challenge, H2O FLOW.
In H2O FLOW, teams learn about real world water scarcity and contamination issues. The seven member team from Brunei Darussalam, consisting of six girls and one boy from private and government schools and higher education institutes are very excited to be part of the unique global initiative to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.
The students have been working hard with their mentors to design, build and test their ideas for the upcoming competition. This will be the first time for them to compete at an international level. They look forward to meeting and working together with other team members from around the world in solving global issues.
“Building the robot, learning about global issues and challenges and thinking about how to improve the lives of people around the world has helped us to open our mind. This has inspired us to use technology for the greater good of mankind,” said one of the students.
“We hope that our effort in the competition will help inspire many more students in Brunei to take up STEM education. A strong STEM workforce is important to help the nation achieve its Vision 2035 which is to have a nation of well-educated and highly skilled people.”
Students and their mentors prior to their departure to the US
UTB lecturer from the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department and also a mentor for the competition, Dr Sharina binti Yunus told the Bulletin that the students underwent three months training where they were taught the basic matters about robotics, the drive train, manipulated arm and how to design a robot and meet the competition challenge.
“For the competition, they have to design a robot that can pick up and differentiate contaminants in the water and separate it. The competition name is H2O challenge. This year’s competition is about how robotics tackles the global issue on the scarcity of water. One of the issues with water is that once the water is contaminated, you can’t use or drink it.”
“In this challenge, Brunei participants will form an alliance with two other different countries and challenge other team from three other different countries.
“They will separate the contaminants and put the water in the right box using the robot they build. They have to come up with a good robot design and towards the end of the challenge, such robot must be able to go to higher ground should the area gets flooded,” she added.
A total of 162 countries will compete in this global challenge to be held in Washington DC. “We will try to do our best and this is the first time that Brunei is competing in the first global challenge. It is an Olympic style competition where each country sends a team,” she added.
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