3 students to join World robotics tilt

THREE public high school students from Lapu-Lapu City are excited about a mission that they have to accomplish in Indonesia.

They will fly to Jakarta on Nov. 15 to help “restore and preserve” the centuries-old Borobudur Temple, a Unesco World Heritage Site.

But Keenu Alan Manayon, Syrum Joseph Quinto and Kent Joshua Tiu will not do it alone.

Mission

“The Dark Knight,” a robot made from Lego parts, motor and a mini computer, will help them finish the virtual mission when they compete in the World Robotics Olympiad on

Nov. 15 to 17.

Quinto, 15, Manayon, 15, and Tiu, 13, of the Lapu-Lapu City Science and Technology Education Center (STEC) will represent the Philippines in the competition after besting 94 other entries from different schools across the country earlier this month.

In 17 seconds or less, the Dark Knight, which was conceptualized and assembled by the three students, will accomplish the virtual mission of restoring and preserving the Borobudur monument.

Structures

At the competition, the robot will enter a 3D game table, which represents the monument.

The robot will enter the Shrine zones and lift all the daamaged stupas—the structures containing relics of the Buddha—and bring them to the finish line for restoration.

They will have two hours to assemble the robot from scratch before the competition starts.

This year, organizers chose the preservation of heritage sites as the theme of the competition.

While they are confident that their robot will not fail them, the students are also bracing for tough competition, particularly with the entries of Russia and Japan, which they said have powerful robots.

“We have confidence in our robot because it has the fastest time in completing the task in the national competition. But because we are competing with Japan and Russia, we have to upgrade our robot and change some parts to make it faster and more

efficient. The fastest and most efficient robot wins the contest,” Manayon said.

Yesterday, the trio presented their robot—named Dark Knight because of its color—and gave a demo on how it will finish the task during a luncheon hosted by Aboitiz Equity Ventures as part of the Cebu Press Freedom Week celebration.

The STEC is one of the public schools supported by the Aboitiz Foundation.

Tiu, a second year high school student of STEC, said they learned a lot from their robotics project, which is also their way of having fun in school.

Fun

They started making the robot last June with the help of their coach and teacher.

“It’s a lot of work but like what our coach said, hard work becomes easy when your work becomes your play. Robotics for us is just like playing with ordinary toys,” said Tiu.

For his part, Quinto said they will compete to have fun, but they also hope to bring home the top prize.

“You don’t have to be serious about it, just have fun. It doesn’t matter if we win or lose,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.

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