The FPT3DN.Robotown team of the Da Nang- based FPT Senior High School have earned a ticket to the 2024 FIRST World Championship which will be held in April, 2024 at George R Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.

The FPT3DN.Robotown team of the Da Nang- based FPT Senior High School finished in first place at the FIRST Tech Challenge Vietnam (FTC Vietnam) Competition.

The FPT3DN.Robotown 15-member team earned this award at the FIRST Tech Challenge Vietnam (FTC Vietnam) Competition which took place in Ha Noi in late February after winning Inspire Award for their first-place finish.

The 2024 FIRST World Championship FIRST Championship is one of the most prestigious international robotics competitions for high school students around the world. The FIRST® has authorized the FPT University to open the Robotics Competition in Viet Nam in accordance with the rules and standards of the US’ FIRST® Tech Challenge. 

This is the first time FTC Vietnam themed “Young Generation Creating the Future” has been held in Viet Nam, and it opened to junior and senior high school students (grades 7-12) nationwide. There were over 25 teams across the country in attendance for FTC Vietnam.

The competition required participating teams to design robots capable of drawing, doing creative work with humans, and even "flying" paper airplanes. In addition, the event’s organizers emphasized that competing teams need to participate in community activities as a priority criteria for the competition.

Do Thi Giang, the leader of the Da Nang FPT team, said that the team were trained to familiarize themselves with robots in a more accessible format with virtual simulation before participating in this competition.

To meet the requirements of the competition’s organizers, the FPT team's members were divided into three groups that took responsibility for communications, mechanical robot assembly, and robot programming. The "school- age robotics engineers" encountered many difficulties during the preparation of the competition.

The school- sponsored basic international standard equipment did not fully satisfy the team's robot operating ideas urged them to order additional components from abroad. However, these components arrived in Viet Nam just in time for the Lunar New Year (Tet) 2024 forced the team’s members to sprint to design and assemble robots in a bid to keep up with the competition’s schedule.

Phan Phuoc Gia Bao, a member of the FPT team, said: "Since the 5^th day of the Lunar New Year 2024, we have focused on building a perfect robot, and have reran tests multiple times until we have got a success. We stayed up until 4:00 am every day to build a perfect robot ."

Before Tet, the communications group coordinated with the robot group of the team to create technical manual which is seen as a “step-by-step guide” designed to assist users in comprehending the technical intricacies of robot. This is considered a detailed presentation of robot design and operation ideas of the team to the competition’s jury.

In particular, right after Tet, the FPT team organized 2 workshops for students in remote areas. These events were attended by students of the An Thoi 2 Primary and Junior High School located in Phu Quoc District, Kien Giang Province, and those of the Nguyen Du Junior High School located in Bac Tra My District, Quang Province. The participants had the opportunity to explore the wonderful world of robotics and STEM.

The team’s efforts has been paid off at FTC Vietnam with earning a ticket to the 2024 FIRST World Championship after finishing in first place in the national robotics competition.

According to team leader Do Thi Giang, apart from receiving the honorable award from the competition, the team’s members learned valuable things from this event, including useful lessons, solidarity and respect among them, and teamwork skills on resumes to work under pressure, and spirit of spreading robot knowledge to the community.

As for Mr. Nguyen Quang Vu, the group's advisor, the team members' success is a stepping stone for their future thrones.

Reporting by LAM VIEN – Translating by H.L