On April 5, 2021, the 2020-2021 VEX Robotics Asia Open Championship came to an end in Jinghe New Town, Xixian New District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. After three-day fierce competition, the TJU Tongji University Team, selected by the Innovation Center of the College of Electronic and Information Engineering (CEIE), distinguished itself in the competition and won the Create Award.
The TJU team, consisting of six 2019 undergraduate students, LIU Ziniu (software engineering), SHEN Lu (automation), WANG Jiayi (artificial intelligence), XUAN Sicheng (automation), TIAN Haiwen (microelectronics), and XU Mingzheng (computer science and technology), competed in the VEX U college and university competition. The rules of the competition stipulate that two robot alliances compete in games consisting of a fifteen-second Autonomous Period, followed by a one-minute- and-forty-five-second Driver Controlled Period. They win scores by placing balls in goals, and connecting rows. Under the guidance of JIANG Nan, the leader teacher, the students had proper work breakdown and cooperated with each other tactically in designing, creating and debugging the robots throughout the whole process, demonstrating a rigorous and pragmatic style which is characteristic of Tongji people.
The VEX robotics competition, also known as the VEX Robotics World Championship, was founded in 2007 by the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation in the United States. The competition is committed to enhancing student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and expose students to valuable soft skills such as collaboration, leadership and problem-solving. VEX competitions have now been held in more than 60 countries worldwide. The 2020-2021VEX Robotics Asia Open had over 400 teams competing with more than 2,000 participants from all over China, including 11 teams from Macau. The competition included five divisions in three categories of VEX IQ, VEX EDR, and VEX U, covering all age groups, from elementary school to university students. In addition to competition, important considerations such as engineering notes, robot design solutions, software intelligence, project reports and team spirit were also factored in by the judges when evaluating the overall performance of the participants.
The VEX Robotics S&T innovation training and competition embodies the great efforts made by the CEIE to practice the education philosophy of "three holistic education" and cultivate innovative engineering talents. Through preparing for and participating in the competition, students have not only obtained solid theoretical knowledge, but also practiced their abilities and cultivated creative thinking.
Written by JIANG Nan, Xu Zhiyu
Photographed by JIANG Nan
