MEDIA ADVISORY 23 January 2009
Republic Polytechnic Emerges Champion in Underwater Robotics
Clean Sweep of Gold, Silver and Bronze Trophies by its School of Engineering in Singapore Robotic Games 2009
Republic Polytechnic (RP), the tertiary institution that approaches education through learning with a difference, has added another feather to its cap at this year’s Singapore Robotic Games 2009, organised by Singapore Robotic Society at the Singapore Science Centre from 20-22 January 2009.
RP’s School of Engineering has broken an unprecedented record of winning all the top three prizes of Gold, Silver and Bronze in the Underwater Robot category at the competition, improving upon its own two-medal (Gold and Silver) win in the same category at last year’s Singapore Robotic Games 2008. The Underwater Robot category was inaugurated in 2007 while the Singapore Robotic Games begun in 1993.
The school fielded four robots in the competition and three of them emerged champions out of the 37 competing teams from all the five polytechnics, Nanyang Technological University and teams from Institute of Technical Education.
Led by Mr. Prasanna Kumar from the School of Engineering (SEG), who was supported by Mr. Shi Haidong, SEG’s technical support engineer and the Diploma in Communications & Automation Electronics (DCAE) final year students - Myo Min Maung, Si Thu Win, May Myat Mon and Saw Kyaw Lwin; each of the three champion robots scored the full score of 32 points, achieving the distinction of being the only institution to attain the full score in this competition.
Following the success, a toy company has expressed interest to collaborate with RP in producing an underwater submarine toy.
“Currently, there are toys that float on water, fly and run on land. We believe there is a market for more sophisticated underwater submarine toys too. The RP robots are efficient, stable and reliable even under tough test conditions,” said Mr Kumar.
The concept of a submarine robot can be used elsewhere to conduct underwater expeditions, and it can be developed into nanobotics for biomedical studies.
“The future is to develop more intelligent robots to explore areas where humans are unable to go. This competition fits well into RP’s problem-based learning where we students are presented with projects to stimulate them into thinking about different solutions,” added Mr Kumar.
The annual Singapore Robotic Games is jointly organized and funded by members of the Singapore Robotic Society with the aim of promoting and creating awareness in robotics engineering.
For further details, kindly contact:
Republic Polytechnic
Benjamin Chow
Tel: 31001779
Email: benjamin_chow@rp.sg
Mileage Communications Pte Ltd
Ooi Kelly/ Ronald Wong
Tel: 62221678
Email: kelly@mileage.com.sg / ronald@mileage.com.sg
About Republic Polytechnic
The first educational institution in Singapore to adopt the Problem-Based Learning approach for all its diploma programmes, Republic Polytechnic has six schools and one centre offering thirty diploma courses in Information & Communications Technology, Engineering, Applied Science, Technology for the Arts, Sports, Health & Leisure, Events and Hospitality, Innovation and Enterprise, and Culture and Communication. Republic Polytechnic is committed to nurturing innovation and entrepreneurial learning in an environment that develops problem-solving process skills and a life-long learning attitude. Its holistic, broad-based curriculum, covering culture, enterprise development and cognitive processes, prepares students for an active and meaningful role in society. Republic Polytechnic strives for excellence by achieving various national and international accreditations, including People Developer Standards, ISO9001, ISO14001, OHSAS 18001, Singapore Quality Class, Singapore Innovation Class, and the Singapore Health Awards (Gold). For more information, visit http://www.rp.sg.