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Exposing young students to STEM via robot competition

An exciting Canberra-based robot design competition, called “Robots in Space!” is looking for interested Year 5 and 6 students.

According to a recent press release, the competition will see student teams designing and/or building their own robotic lunar explorers.

About the competition

To do this, they will have to imagine the challenges their robots could face on the Moon and come up with creative solutions to overcome them.

The initiative aims to stoke the interest of the students in Science, Technology, Education and Mathematics (STEM).

It is vital to have an environment in which kids can be introduced to STEM at their own paces.

Not enough school students are given exposure to science and engineering in an exciting and innovative way. Because of this, STEM fields are in desperate need of more passionate and creative minds.

As shared by the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Canberra, encouraging young thinkers to undertake STEM activities is very important for the future.

This year, teams will register and submit entries for the Canberra-based competition via its website, which hosted by the University of Canberra.

Registrations close on 16 August while submissions close on 27 September.

Students can participate in one of two categories.

Teams in the General category will create a non-functional robot. The Open category, on the other hand, is for schools that have access to robot kits and will see teams build functional robots.

Teams in both categories will build obstacle courses, created around their robots’ perceived challenges.

Compared to other competitions of its kind, less focus is being given on coding in this competition. It encourages creativity and collaboration across diverse areas including the arts.

An Associate Professor of the University shared that this broader STEA[rts]M approach to learning is going to be an important part of future-proofing the youngsters.

Importance of STEM skills

This collaborative initiative is a great opportunity to give back to the community and teach children how STEM can be fun and exciting.

Moreover, it will help the children learn how to think outside the box for solving solutions that they will face in their day to day lives.

The Deputy Head of the Australian Space Agency, and a judge in the competition, explained that programs like this will introduce STEM skills that the students will need for the jobs of the future.

With the rapid transformation of Australia’s space industry, these jobs include a vast array of space-related jobs in Australia.

The lunar focus of competition is particularly timely as the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing this year.

The Moon landing epitomises what STEM is all about – a group of people coming together with common purpose, collaborating to answer one of humanity’s big questions.

The initiative to stoke the interest of students in STEM was made possible through collaboration among government, academia and industry that include the Australian Space Agency and the University of Canberra.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

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CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

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Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

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HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

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IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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