ICT

ROBOTIC SUMO CHAMPIONSHIPS

In the last week of term, I had the pleasure of joining Mr Liakakos’s Year 9 Robotics class who were taking part in the Robotic Sumo Championships. Over a series of lessons, the students worked in pairs to create a robot that had to operate within a sumo ring, or Dohyo to give it its proper name. Their challenge was to use their robot to push their opponent out of the ring whilst staying within the Dohyo themselves. All robots had to be able to fit within a 200 x 200 mm box to ensure that size could not conquer all. The students came up with some great names including Batman, Cornflakes and the Great Wall of Germany. 

The amount of creativity on display was incredible. Each group had clearly thought about the features they would include in their robot to give it the best chance of being successful in taking down their opponent. 

After several rounds it came down to a final between Stinky Pinky and Second Wheels. 

Created by Ewan Burke and Isaac Romanis, Second Wheels was a particularly interesting concept. The boys created a robot which, on moving, would discard bits of lego onto the Dohyo in the hope of disrupting the movement of their opponent giving them an opportunity to push it out of the ring. I think Mr Liakakos was a bit doubtful as to how successful this idea would be but somehow they made it to the final. 

Stinky Pinky, created by Michael Liolios and Ryan Hayward, had created a much more solid looking robot that was clearly going to use its strength and stability to defeat its opponents and, in the end, this is exactly what it did.

Well done to all the students for taking part and well done to the Robotics teachers, Mr McDonald and Mr Liakakos, for giving the students such a fun and creative activity.

WEB COMP

Earlier this year, a number of students took part in the Grok Web Competition. The format this year was different from previous years with the Design Competition being an optional part of the challenge. 

One student, Maleesha Dharmadasa from Year 7H, was more than ready for this challenge. Maleesha submitted her final website based on a pop-up plant warehouse selling a range of garden and household plants. 

Students from all over the world took part in this final stage with the winner being a student from Maharashtra, India. Maleesha finished first in Victoria and 16th overall in this competition. This is an incredible achievement especially as many of the finalists were Year 9 or higher. Maleesha will receive a $25 gift voucher for JB HiFi for her efforts. Well done, Maleesha.

GROK CYBER COMP

Grok Learning has been offering a number of challenges in Cyber Security for a few years now but this year they decided to take it a bit further. A 45-minute challenge was set up for students at various year levels to test their cyber skills in a timed environment. The Competition consisted of 12 tasks that the students had to solve within the given timeframe. In all, 24,000 students from 561 schools across Australia participated in this first-of-its-kind event. Congratulations to the following students who gained High Distinction and were top in their year level:

Emma Nineva (Year 7)

Seung-Jae Youn (Year 7)

Benjamin Muyemba (Year 7)

Hamish McAllister (Year 7)

Eamon Taylor (Year 7)

Stefan Tale (Year 7)

Joshua Kuzmis (Year 10)

Each of these students will receive a $25 gift voucher for JB HiFi.

Shirley Munro

ICT Learning Area Manager