IDC Robocon Kicks off at Zhejiang University
On the morning of August 7, the 28th edition of the International Design Contest Robocon (IDC Robocon 2017) kicked off at Zhejiang University. The event lasted two weeks.
Initiated by Tokyo Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990, the educational contest aims to foster university students’ creativity and bring entertainment and international experience to these promising engineers.
Professor Xiong Rong from the College of Control Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, co-chaired the program with Masaki Yamakita, a professor from Tokyo Institute of Technology. A total of 11 universities, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Seoul National University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Zhejiang University, participated in the contest.
The 55 contestants from China, the United States, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Egypt and Mexico, were randomly divided into 12 teams, each team comprised of students from different countries. Thus, cross-cultural communication and collaboration were also one key challenge of Robocon 2017 in addition to designing and making robots. Over two weeks, they shared ideas and knowledge on robotics, as well as other academic topics.
The theme of the competition is one of its highlights. Every year, the organizing committee designs interesting and culturally significant topics. In 2011, Zhejiang University was invited to participate in this contest at MIT for the first time. Participants were asked to design and build robots to produce some of the greatest hacks of all time (the word “hack” here refers to a practical joke on a large scale). This year, students were expected to design robots for carrying cargoes along the two trading routes—the Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road—the routes of the Belt and Road Initiative. This simplified and abstract way enabled the participants to know about China’s Belt and Road Initiative in a tangible manner.
“We decide to hold Robocon 2017 at Zhejiang University so as to make international students get a better understanding of the university, Hangzhou and China. Meanwhile, this year marks the 120th anniversary of Zhejiang University, thus adding more significance to the contest,” said Prof. Masaki Yamakita.
“Zhejiang University is one of the pioneering universities in the domain of robotics in China. At present, roughly 30 teams from more than 10 colleges at Zhejiang University engage in research into robots. The university has invested a massive amount of effort and resources in talent cultivation, fundamental research and industrial development,” said Zhu Shiqiang, Vice Party Chief of Zhejiang University. “There are four classroom modes at Zhejiang University, which aim to promote students’ ability to apply basic knowledge to practice and cater for the demands of society. Among them, “the second classroom”—scientific and research training programs and academic contests—is committed to cultivating and boosting students’ comprehensive quality. The number of school-level, province-level and state-level scientific and research training programs add up to 1,500 every year,” said Zhang Guangxin, Executive Vice Dean of the Undergraduate School, Zhejiang University.
Masaki Yamakita stated: “The three key goals of this contest are inspiring creativity, promoting cross-cultural communication and stimulating inter-disciplinary partnership.”