SK Putrajaya Presint 11 (3), home to budding internationally-acclaimed roboticists

Follow the hum and you will find members of the SK Putrajaya Presint 11 (3) Robotics Club hard at work, busy testing the capabilities of robots they created using Lego components and computer programming.

Their robots tend to attract a great deal of attention after several achievements at the international level, including winning four medals, one of them a gold, at the 2019 World Robot League Competition in Ulsan, South Korea.

SK Putrajaya Presint 11 (3) Robotics Club co-ordinating teacher Siti Maryam Rahman said that the eight members of the club, drawn from Year Two to Year Six pupils, were selected after undergoing a special test.

"They had to sit for a basic computer programming and robot invention test. We cannot take many pupils because the robot Lego sets are limited. Members will try to create the best robots for competitions," she told Bernama.

According to Siti Maryam, some former club members continued their involvement in robotics even at secondary school level.

SK Putrajaya Presint 11(3) headmaster Hishammudin Ahmad meanwhile said the school had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the International Robotics Educational Association (IREA) of South Korea in order to improve the pupils' skills in robotics.

"Under the MoU, IREA will notify the school about competitions available in South Korea for us to participate in," he said, adding that the experiences gleaned from major championships would provide good exposure for the members.

He said that the robotics club still participated in championships, including at the international level, such as the 2020 World Robot League Festival, during the COVID-19 pandemic despite not being able to attend physically.

Another of the club's co-ordinating teachers, Mohd Asraf Mohd Siraj said the pupils who join the robotics club would also be taught not only robotics but proper communication skills.

"We will teach the pupils to speak well because they will be meeting other international students...reading, speaking and writing skills are very important.

"The pupils could easily communicate and fit in well with the other international pupils when they participated at the championship in South Korea...it is something to be proud of," he said.

A club member, Muhammad Hafiz Irfan Mohd Hafizal, 11, said participating in the robotics club enabled him to meet many international pupils who were skilled in the field.

"I am proud because I can go abroad for robotics championships. If possible, I want to urge many more friends to join this club," said Muhammad Hafiz, who joined the club two years ago.