24 Jul 2017
On Friday July 21, a group of students from Year 7-11, attended the Australian launch of the Zero Robotics Competition at the University of Sydney. Zero Robotics is an international competition which challenges students to code instructions for a "sphere" to be launched in the International Space Station in January 2018. The competition is a joint initiative between the University of Sydney's Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies and MIT in the USA.
At the launch, we learned some computer coding and the mathematics required to move the sphere. There are a set of challenges that the spheres must complete and the schools with the most efficient coding will continue on to the International Competition in September.
We were also privileged to listen to a talk from the Executive Director of Space Engineering, Warwick Holmes. Warwick worked with a NASA team, building a rocket ship for the Rosetta Mission which was launched in 2007 and, after ten long years, landed on a comet this year. This inspiring speaker said that the students gathered were the space engineers of the future!
Our school has been allocated 2 mentors who are students with the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies. One of our mentors is former Bonnyrigg high School student Rebecca Kung who completed Year 12 last year in 2016 and is now studying at the University.
If you see these students around the school, please wish them well for the competition!
Thank you to Ms Stanford and Mr Nightscales for taking our students out to this wonderful event. If you would like to see more pictures they can be found in the Gallery.