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Waiakea High School, as the first American Secondary School to participate,
competed against Asian college and other high school teams in the Micro Robot
Racer contest, the Mountain Climbing Micro Robot Maze Competition, the Fully
Autonomous Micro Robot Maze Competition, the Remote-Controlled Micro Robot Maze
Competition. Their micro robots are either one cubic inch or one cubic
centimeter in size, with components so small that they were required to use a
microscope or magnifying lenses to do much of their work. Highly student
centered, the team was mentored by Waiakea High School graduate, Riley Ceria, a
University of Hawaii electrical engineering graduate, working for the CalTech
Submillimeter Observatory in Hilo which provided him with work time off to
participate in the regular after school meetings since this past spring.
Their months long hard work paid off by their winning:
1. First Place, Fully Autonomous Micro Robot Maze Competition (robot name:
Teeny Humuhumu)
2. Third Place, Micro Robot Racer (robot name: Stich.05) 3. Special judges
award 5th overall standing, Remote Controlled Micro Robot Maze Competition
(robot name: Teeny Humuhumu)
We can be very proud of their representing the United States (and Hawaii) in
this robot competition, not only for the quality of their performance but their
promoting the Aloha spirit and our culture throughout their stay in Japan. The
four judges were Dr. Mikio Horie, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Dr. Tyzh-jong
Tarn, Washington University in St. Louis, Center for Robotics and Automation,
Dr. Fumihito Arai, Tohoku University, Dept of Bioengineering and Robotics), and
Art Kimura, Hawaii Space Grant Consortium, University of Hawaii. The skill sets
(which include designing and fabricating their own circuit boards and working on
a scale that have important implications for future developmental work in nano
technology).
Their 8 day Japan experience included: the National Museum of Emerging
Science and Technology, the Sony ExploraScience Museum, the Toyota Commemorative
Museum, and a visit to Meinan Technical High School. Among the Japanese high
schools competing was Ritsumeikan Senior High School, which has been designated
as a Super Science High School by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology; an invitation has been extended to Hawaii to
have Hawaii students and teachers participate in their annual fall Super Science
Fair, a symposium of 100 student speakers, team events and home stay in October
2008, and to promote further cooperation and discussion about STEM through
future student and teacher exchanges.
With the checklist and procedures that were developed, we hope that other
Hawaii schools will be able to have such a rich experience as well in the
future.
The journey has forged a bridge of further understanding and cooperation of
students and teachers in Hawaii and Japan.
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