Friday October 23, 2009
‘MJ’ to represent Malaysia at robotic Olympiad
By MARTIN CARVALHO
MALACCA: Three best buddies who played with Lego blocks as kids will get to pursue their passion all the way to South Korea in the World Robotic Olympiad.
Johnston Tan Eu Jun, Lee Jin Onn Teng and Teng Wai Huang will represent Malaysia and compete against 36 other countries in the competition which will be held from Nov 5 to 8 in Pohang.
They won the chance to represent Malaysia when their Michael Jackson or MJ robot beat 300 other entries from other schools in the national-level contest held at the National Science Centre recently.
“We never imagined our interest in Lego blocks would one day lead to a passion for robotic engineering.
Dancing gizmo: (From left) Lee, Tan and Teng making final adjustments to their Michael Jackson robot in Malacca yesterday. “We hope to do Malaysia proud with our MJ robot which we created as a tribute to the late King of Pop,” Tan said when met here yesterday.
The students from St Francis Institution spent more than five months creating the fully motorised robot and the stage for its performance, he said.
He added that the materials used to make the robot came from a robotic set supplied by the Education Ministry two years ago.
Teammate Lee said it was not easy getting the robot to mimic Michael Jackson’s dance moves as it involved the use of Legos NXT computer software programme.
“We won the preliminary rounds with an Elvis robot but decided to do a much harder Michael Jackson one later,” he said.
Meanwhile, principal Ong Chong Wee said the school’s achievement was a fitting tribute for his retirement today.
“Over the past decade we have done the state and country proud on many occasions,” he said, adding that the boys have to raise RM2,000 for their trip to South Korea.
Also present was state Education director Isa Abu.
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