Sasbadi's Annual National Robotic competition looks to the future

The 9th Annual National Robotics Competition (NRC) organized by Sasbadi Sdn Bhd in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, Malaysia (MOE) concluded after three days of event from September 24 to 26.

Every year, the event promotes the creativity, innovation, and higher order thinking skills that hands-on learning brings to students via the established robotics platform in Malaysian schools nationwide.

The competition this year saw participation of approximately 3,000 teams from primary and secondary schools throughout the nation.

The top winners of the National Finals qualified for the world stage of the competition, the World Robot Olympiad 2013 ("WRO"), which will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia from November 15 – 17 after last year’s Kuala Lumpur event, where hometown champions Malaysia emerged victorious for the third time in four years.

Robots have been a hot topic over the last decade or more and, in order to properly appreciate the educational values they bring to students in classrooms, Sasbadi, the well-known publisher of textbooks and educational materials, has been working with the MoE to organize the competition since 2005. Sasbadi is the exclusive partner for LEGO Education in Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.

Mr. Law King Hui, Managing Director of Sasbadi expressed his thanks to the Malacca State Education Department and the Ministry of Education for their support in the event, before going on to say that, “The NRC is the stage for us to screen and select the best teams prior to the WRO and allows us to hone their skills before the event.

Through this process, Malaysia has been able to win the title of overall champion of the WRO three times within the last four years, including last year in Kuala Lumpur, as well as Pohang, South Korea and in Manila in the Philippines in 2009 and 2010 respectively. The great success of the

Malaysian team in this competition is a testament to our education system as, in fact, we managed to capture 50% of the total number of medals on offer last year.”

Earlier in his speech Mr. Law also offered some words that encapsulate the spirit of the NRC, saying to all participants, “Whether you have successfully become a champion or not, you are all winners today. Winning is not everything, learning is.”

The annual competition is comprised of three categories, Regular, Open, and Gen II Football, each with their own unique challenges, while participants are divided into three distinct groups, namely, primary schools, lower secondary schools and upper secondary schools.

Participants need to impress the judges to overcome three stages – the District Round, State Round and finally, the National Stage competition, where they compete for the three top spots in their respective categories. The full list of winners for this year’s NRC can be found online at http://nrc.sasbadi.com/results_final.php.

The theme of this year's competition was "World Heritage". In the Open category, participants were challenged to create and design robots that promote and/or protect World Heritage Sites.

Judges were treated to a wide range of creative and exciting projects, from robots that enable online visitors to view archeological exhibits through the internet, to humanoid robots that serve as tour guides and interpreters.

In the Open category, SJKC Yuk Chai, from Selangor took home the gold in the primary school division, Chung Ling Butterworth from Penang took first place for the secondary school division and the gold title for the upper secondary division was taken by SMK USJ 4 from Selangor.

In the Regular category, SMK Bintulu from Sarawak emerged at the top for both lower and upper secondary divisions, whereas SK Kandis from Kelantan took the gold in the primary school division.

The NRC Finals was officially closed by the Malacca State Education Director, Tuan Haji Kasim bin Mohamad who was representing the Malacca State Secretary, Datuk Haji Naim bin Abu Bakar.

Naim said in his speech, read by Tuan Haji Kassim, ‘The number of entries to the NRC are increasing drastically year after year, until around 3,000 participants in 2013. This is a tremendous success and a good sign that the awareness and interest in the field of Robotics among students has increased.”

He continued, “Through this competition, Sasbadi has contributed to the increase in the number of students interested in the field of robotics, science and technology, especially in rural areas. Sasbadi has committed resources and finances every year to encourage students and I understand that they also give technical support to schools nationwide. With such a partnership, we will certainly continue to produce high-quality students.”

Throughout the years, Sasbadi has been a keen supporter of education in Malaysia through its textbooks and publishing endeavors.

The Company is also keenly aware of the importance of 21st Century technology in providing the future of education and fully supports online learning and education through teaching children to think outside of traditional classroom activities.

The NRC is a crucial part of Sasbadi’s ethos regarding taking learning to the next level and providing hands-on education in addition to its textbooks and online materials.