MANILA, Nov. 5, 2011?Team Gracean Whiz of the Grace Christian College (GCC) topped the maiden year of the Philippines’ first and only varsity type robotic competition for high school students.
Dubbed as “Tagisang Robotics”, the aim of the competition is to enable the participants to harness their skills by learning and cooperating with others, despite being on a highly competitive environment. It seeks to encourage students to think out of the box solutions on challenges posed before them and allow them to execute these ideas into action.
Graceans, as what they are called, outdid 21 other high schools from Metro Manila and nearby provinces netting the highest seed after the elimination round, winning the Best Team award with a cash prize of P100,000, a trophy and gold medals. Their coach, Warren OngPe, took home P30,000 as cash prize for their winning.
The Graceans also won the Best Alliance Award together with Dr. Yanga’s College Inc. Team DYCI Trojans and Rizal National Science High School Team R11 Mekanismo beating the alliance of Makati-based schools Tibagan High School Team Masonry, Makati Science High School Team Maksci Roboccaneers and Bangkal High School Team Robotes Amables in the Final Round.
Best Alliance awardees got P150,000 cash prize, their coaches, P30,000, their schools trophies and silver medals.
Tagisang Robotics participants are composed of 10 students per team from each school.
Special Awards were given as well to the other schools that joined Tagisang Robotics.
Muntinlupa Science High School Team Munsci Jailbreakers got the Thinklab Best Blog Award.
Caloocan High School Team Mechanical High won both the Felta Most Popular Robot Award and the Alexan Most Popular Team Award, after their robot and team picture obtained the most number of Facebook likes at the end of the elimination round.
Philippine Science High School Main Campus Team Liyab, on the other hand, secured the National Instruments Best Robot Engineering Design.
“Tagisang Robotics has brought into the country a brand new spectrum into Philippine robotics fueled by dynamism, enthusiasm and team spirit,” said SEI Director Dr. Filma Brawner in a press release.
Brawner also said that the Tagisang Robotics: Design, Build, and Play Competition has opened a brand new way of robotics learning that can be integrated into the curricular programs of schools.
“As a field, robotics is a perfect example of a convergence of various disciplines emerging from basic and applied sciences, building and controlling robots that perform, certain tasks are not just the goals of this competition, but rather, the development of skills and values that will be useful in running tomorrow’s technology-driven industry,” she added.
Brawner urged student participants to take on careers in science in the future and hone their skills in critical and creative thinking, teamwork, interpersonal communication and problem solving, despite being on a highly competitive environment.
The robotics competition is organized by the Science Education Institute (SEI), the country’s science and technology human resource development agency in partnership with SM Prime Holdings and Nido Fortified Science Discovery Center together with Alexan, Felta Multimedia Inc., Jollibee Foundation, National Instruments, Philippine Foundation for Science and Technology, and Thinklab, Tagisang Robotics seeks to help high school students discover how interesting and rewarding the life of engineers and researchers can be. (Jandel Posion)
