Singapore Polytechnic enables special needs students to participate in RoboCup 2013

06 Apr 2013

MEDIA RELEASE

Singapore, 6 April 2013 – The Singapore Open of the world’s most prestigious robot and artificial intelligence event, RoboCup 2013 has been hailed a success, with participation from over 100 teams with close to 400 students from primary schools, secondary schools and junior colleges as well as countries such as China, Indonesia, Japan and Malaysia.

Jointly organized by Singapore Polytechnic (SP) and Science Centre Singapore (SCS), the RoboCup has been the strongest educational platform for youths to enhance their skills in robotics, artificial intelligence and engineering. It allows students to exercise and combine their creativity with scientific knowledge, to innovate technological advancements in robotics that will have an impact on the quality of life.

Besides the RoboCup Soccer, Dance and Rescue Challenge categories, a new and unique feature of this year’s RoboCup Singapore Open 2013 is the RoboCup Cospace Robot Relay Challenge. This is developed by SP’s Advanced Robotics and Intelligent Control Centre (ARICC) and it enables special needs students from Grace Orchard School to learn about robotics as well.

This is the first time in RoboCup’s 17 years of history where special needs students get to participate actively through the use of CoSpace.

CoSpace is a locally developed process for supporting a cyber-physical world. Traditionally, there is a distinct separation between the physical world and the virtual world. In CoSpace, the physical world and the virtual world are able to interact simultaneously in real-time through sensors or mobile devices mounted on robots.

In the CoSpace Robot Relay Challenge, the special needs students teamed up with SP students to control their physical robot by recreating the exact scenario and programming the robot’s actions in the virtual world.

“RoboCup has played a vital role in SP’s journey towards building a broad and deep based education with a global perspective. By combining the CoSpace concept with an educational purpose, we are able to achieve a breakthrough where the disadvantaged or special needs students can also be exposed to robotics, allowing them to express their passion for science like other students,” said Dr Zhou Changjiu, Director, ARICC.

Acknowledging the meaningful event, Mrs Noreen Lim-Yeo, Principal, Grace Orchard School said, “We are thankful that our students have the opportunity to be a part of such a prestigious event. The experience of competing in such a field for special needs children will boost their self-confidence and serve to fire up their interest to acquire similar scientific knowledge”.

CoSpace has also been officially recognized for use as an official competition platform by the International RoboCup Federation at RoboCup 2013 after two years of testing and validation. This year’s edition also saw the creation of new competition categories for the CoSpace platform – RoboCup Junior CoSpace Rescue and RoboCup Junior CoSpace Dance.

“Robotics has been gaining in popularity at a fast clip among students and youths here. Since its launch in 2010, RoboCup Singapore has seen steady participation growth. Other school and national level robotics events and clubs also continue to be a strong pull for students and youths,” said A/Prof Lim Tit Meng, Chief Executive, Science Centre Singapore.

The RoboCup 2013 Singapore Open also serves as the national selection platform for teams who will keep Singapore’s flag flying high at RoboCup World Championship 2013. This prestigious event will witness 3,000 participants from over 40 countries competing in the Netherlands from 24 June to 30 June this year.

After two days of intense competition, the following winning teams of their respective league will stand a chance to represent Singapore in the World Championships 2013:

RoboCup Junior Soccer Lightweight League

Individual Team Primary – Team Nanyang 6 from Nanyang Primary School

Individual Team Secondary – Team Chromo from Nanyang Girls High School

RoboCup Junior Soccer Open League

Individual Team – Team tRItans from Raffles Institution

RoboCup Junior Rescue League

Individual Team Primary – Team Temabot-61 from Temasek Primary School

Individual Team Secondary – Team Tectonic from Admiralty Secondary School

RoboCup Junior Dance League

Original Performance Primary – Team Jedi Gold from Ju Ying Primary School

Original Performance Secondary – Team Mocha, Choc and Chilli Pepper from Raffles Institution

RoboCup Junior CoSpace Rescue League

Individual Team Primary – Team Happy Treasure Bot from Nanyang Primary School

Individual Team Secondary – Team Matrix from Victoria Junior College

RoboCup Junior CoSpace Dance League

Original Performance Secondary – Team Olga from Raffles Girls School

END

Students from Grace Orchard School having fun interacting with the robots at the Robocup 2013 CoSpace Robot Relay Challenge

Mr Chong and his son Alex, learning about robotics in a fun and engaging manner at Robocup 2013

The winning teams celebrating their success at Robocup 2013

Media Contact and Enquiries:

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About Singapore Polytechnic (www.sp.edu.sg)

Established in 1954 to meet the manpower needs identified by the government, Singapore Polytechnic (SP) is Singapore’s first polytechnic. Its 10 academic schools offer 50 full-time diploma courses for its 15,970 students and courses are kept relevant through close links with industry and government bodies, as well as with various overseas institutions.

SP offers broad-based, multi-disciplinary and flexible curriculum dedicated to hands-on experience. It is committed to the development of its applied research and development capabilities to enhance the quality of teaching and commercialisation efforts. Through Design Thinking, SP offers a revolutionary approach to education, allowing its students to look at problems from different perspectives, and strike a dynamic balance between intuitive and analytical thinking to provide impactful solutions.

Among SP's 166,800 graduates are successful entrepreneurs, top executives in multinational and public-listed corporations, and well-known professionals, many of whom are captains of industries, university professors and researchers, and leaders in government.

SP is the first polytechnic to be awarded the President’s Award for the Environment in 2010 and the President's Social Service Award in 2011.

About Science Centre Singapore
The Science Centre Singapore celebrates 35 years of promoting interest and creative learning in science and technology. Over the past 35 years, the Centre and its partners have played a pivotal role in transforming the way students and the public interact with and learn about science & technology. The Science Centre, Omni-Theatre and Snow City have engaged and enriched more than 29.5 million students and visitors since 1977. A custodian of creativity and innovation, the Centre has captured the evolution of scientific developments through unique and relevant exhibitions and shows. It continues to ignite young minds and foster new generations of scientifically savvy Singaporeans.

A non-formal educational institution and leading Science Centre in the region, the Science Centre houses 14 exhibition galleries with more than 1,000 exhibits, and another 20,000 sq metres of outdoor exhibition space showcasing the Waterworks exhibition, Ecogarden and Kinetic Garden. It also houses the Omni-Theatre — Singapore’s only dome-shaped, 5-storey high IMAX theatre. The Science Centre, Omni-Theatre and Snow City received 1.46 million visitors for FY2011/2012. For more information, please visit www.science.edu.sg