Gwangju schoolkids honored at U.S. robot competition

Four Korean students from Gwangju participated in one of the largest robotics competitions in the world, the 2022 FIRST Championship, held in Houston, Texas, last month. [Gwangju Gyelim Elementary School]

Elementary school students from Gwangju made their mark at one of the largest international robotics competitions in the world.

Four Korean students participated in the 2022 FIRST Championship held in Houston, Texas.

The event, hosted by the FIRST scholarship foundation, invited 70,000 students from 108 countries and was held from April 20 to April 23. It is one of the largest international robotics competitions in the world.

The Korean students were Kim Tae-woon from Gwangju Gyelim Elementary School; Cho Hyun-kyu from Songwon Elementary School; Na Ye-jun from Bongsan Elementary School; and Kim Yoo-soo, a Gwangju native who attends the Singapore International School

The four Koreans submitted a Smart Vaccine Delivery Robot System in the elementary level competition and were awarded the Team Poster Award. Their project was a system in which robots help with the delivery of vaccines to prevent the spread of a virus.

The students all entered elementary school after the Covid-19 pandemic. They integrated their own experiences of the pandemic into the task of the competition, which was to “identify problems in transportation and develop solutions.”

“I made the vaccine delivery system because I wanted to let out the pressure I felt during the pandemic,” Kim Tae-woon said. “I want to keep pursuing my dreams of becoming a robotics engineer and develop robots that are helpful to people.”

The four students participated in the Korea Robot Championship in February, in which some 90 teams competed for a spot in the international competition. They won that championship.

“Our children are only eight years old, but they have been interested in robots for a long time,” said Kim Jin-seok, father of Kim Tae-woon. “We were also greatly interested in the FIRST Championship because 20 percent of MIT freshmen had attended the competition.”

But the student’s ambitions were marred somewhat by the Covid-19 pandemic, as visits to engineering facilities and face-to-face lessons were impossible. “The international FIRST Championship was held this year for the first time in three years,” said Kim. “We prepared for the competition by watching videos and courses online.”

The four students are planning to compete again in the competition when they are in middle school. The students’ schools are starting club activities related to robotics and asking the Gwangju Provincial Government for financial support.

“It is extraordinary that students from Gwangju won an award at an international competition,” said Shin Myung-soon, principal of Gwangju Gyelim Elementary School. “Our school will strengthen support for our children so they can interact with young people from across the globe and continue to pursue their dreams.”

BY JIN CHANG-IL [kjdnational@joongang.co.kr]