High school students win robot contest

HCM CITY — Hoàng Lê Kha High School of Tây Ninh Province and Trần Đại Nghĩa and Mạc Đĩnh Chi High Schools in HCM City won first prizes in the Open, Interschool and SRobot Clip at the fifth “Having Fun with Robots – Learning good Pascal” competition (SRobot), organisers announced on Saturday.

Organised by the Saigon Institute of Technology (SaigonTech), Quang Trung Software City (QTSC), the city’s Department of Education and Training and the Centre for Development of Science and Technology, the SRobot competition is designed for high school students, attracting more than 200 teams from 54 schools from HCM City and other provinces this year.

The winning teams won VNĐ10 million (US$438) for Interschool and VNĐ5 million each for the two other categories. They all recieved certificates of merit.

A robot performs in the final round of the fifth “Having Fun with Robot – Learning good Pascal” competition. — VNS Photo

Nguyễn Văn Hiếu, deputy director of the city’s Department of Education and Training, said Pascal is a compulsory school subject at high schools, but students do not have much chance for practice.

The competition provides them with an interactive platform to learn Pascal programming language in a more interesting way, he said.

It also aims to stimulate their creativity and to orient the future careers of students toward the information technology sector.

SaigonTech and QTSC on Saturday announced the launch the SaigonTech IT Bootcamp 2017 to be held from June 5-10 and dedicated to students from grade nine to 12, students from local and overseas universities and colleges and especially for youth who have a passion for IT. — VNS