WATCH THE VIDEO: This year’s Digital Innovation Festival wrapped up on 6 September. A two-week celebration of tech, ICT and innovation, one of the event highlights was the student RoboCup competition.  

RoboCup Junior Inc is a not-for-profit organisation that sponsors local, regional and international robotic competitions for young students. RoboCup aims to foster interest and develop skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).  

Held at the Melbourne Showgrounds on 30 August, primary and secondary school students competed in one or more divisions of dance, rescue and soccer, with a panel of judges determining the winners in each category.

Students spoke of how the competition taught them about programming robots, basic coding, the chance to make friends from competing schools and how to prepare for future studies and STEM careers.

Watch the video to see the action from the 2019 RoboCup competition.  

What is RoboCup Junior?

RoboCup Junior is a project-oriented educational initiative that sponsors local, regional and international robotic events for young students. It is designed to introduce RoboCup to primary and secondary school children, as well as undergraduates who do not have the resources to get involved in the senior leagues. The focus in the junior league is on education. RoboCup is an international effort whose purpose is to foster Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics research by providing a standard problem where a wide range of technologies can be integrated and examined. As well, the initiative serves as a basis for project-oriented education. The ultimate goal of RoboCup is that by the middle of the 21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall play (and win!) a soccer game against the (human) world champions.

Article first published by the Victorian Connection