The HKUST Robotics Team enjoyed a bumper year in 2015, with its various teams receiving a host of awards in local and international contests. 

 

The Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) team won the championship in the Explorer Class at the 10th Hong Kong/Asia Regional IET/MATE Underwater Robot Challenge and went on to surpass its previous achievements by receiving four awards at the MATE International ROV Competition in Canada, including third place overall in the Explorer Class. The team of students from the Schools of Engineering, Science and Business were in competition with over 30 teams from 10 countries and regions. The 2015 challenge focused on ROVs’ role in arctic science and the offshore oil and gas industries, with teams required to build a robot that could accomplish 25 industrial ROV tasks in extreme underwater environments. The team also received a second class award in the 14th National Challenge Cup. The biennial competition is considered one of the premier competitions in China for top young innovative minds across the country.

 

In the Robocon Hong Kong contest, HKUST won the championship for the fifth consecutive year. The University’s “Fiery Dragon” team was named champion while its “War Dragon” team was third runner-up. The theme was “Robominton” with every team developing two robots, one wired, one wireless, to compete in a game of badminton against an opposing team’s robots. HKUST went on to represent Hong Kong in the international ABU Robocon in Indonesia, securing the first runner-up place. 

 

Meanwhile, the Smart Car team steered its way to three honors at the 10th National Undergraduate Students “Freescale Cup” Intelligent Car Competition (South China Region), namely two third class awards in the camera section and a certificate of merit in the electro-magnetic section. The competition encourages students to apply circuit design and mechanics, embedded software programming, and control theories to create smart model cars that can race on a complex track.