PITOGO High School, last year’s Rookie Awardee and Best Team, once again proved its might as its team dominated the 2014 Tagisang Robotics: Design, Build and Play Competition.
The team, composed of 10 students and two teachers with their robots, put on an almost flawless performance to lead all its alliances to win-after-win and close the elimination round with five wins and one draw, topping all other 34 teams who battled in what could be the last edition of the competition.
The games, organized by the Science Education Institute (SEI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), were held on October 29 and 30 in Pasay City.
With the win, Pitogo High School brought home P100,000 cash prize, P30,000 for the coach, a trophy and medals. Likewise, the alliance of Pitogo High School, former Best Team awardee Grace Christian College and Rizal High School cruised past the alliance of Victorino Mapa High School, Philippine Science High School-Main and Rizal National Science High School in the final round with a perfect 2-0 record to garner the Best Alliance plum.
They brought home P150,000 cash prize, P30,000 for their coaches, medals for students and trophies for their schools. SEI Director Dr. Josette Biyo said she was happy with how hard the teams played using their “tactically designed” robots and how they have used their months—and for some, years—of training in the competition.
“Four years in and we’re happy with how far our schools have mastered not only the mechanics of the game, but also the value of teamwork.
We’re proud to have witnessed their growth ever since day one,” Biyo said.
With its clear impact in promoting robotics as a field, Biyo expressed enthusiasm in finding a sponsor to organize another round of Tagisang Robotics next year, hoping to continue inspiring children to go into the sciences.
“That has been our goal, to continue motivating our students to take the path of science and technology as we need more scientists and engineers. We have our scholarship programs that can help them do so and we feel that, by continuing this project, we will be able to inspire more students to be science professionals in the future,” she added.
Tagisang Robotics is considered the toughest robotics competition in the country that uses industry-type platform and involves training the students in electronics, programming and robot building. The SEI plans to seek partnership with the private sector to sustain its implementation in the coming years.
Meanwhile, SEI announced its plan to launch the first ever Can Satellite (CanSat) Competition in the country next year. The CanSat Competition is being organized in many countries to promote space science among children, as well as college students. It allows students to have first-hand experience of a real space mission beginning with the design, building, testing, launching data analysis, and presentation of results.
“With the CanSat Competition, we want to inspire our kids in the field of space science, especially in this age where satellite applications are in its highest importance. Hopefully, we can launch that program, as well as continue the fifth Tagisang Robotics next year,” Biyo said.
Marco Melgar
Image credits: SEI photo