National Educational Robot Competition Kicks off in Changsha

　　The 7th Educational Robot Competition in China (ERCC) entered the finals in Changsha on November 4, 2017. It is co-hosted by the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence (CAAI) and the Hunan Xiangjiang New Area.

　　More than 1,300 students from over 100 educational institutions participated.

　　The competition aims to promote educational robot training in university campus, and specifically, the popularization of innovative courses on robot-assisted engineering.

　　Campus robot contests have been held for more than a decade, which have become a good approach to training creative talents and accelerating educational reform, said Prof. Huang Xinhan from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) and also director of the CAAI Intelligent Robot Committee.

　　The finals has 22 programs for four groups, namely, undergraduate college, junior college and higher vocational school, middle school and secondary vocational school, and primary school. The programs are divided into four categories: unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) steeplechase, robot battle, small logistic robot system, and robot group dance.

　　“The competition is a practice to implement the national innovation-driven development strategy to create stronger growth drivers, and Hunan’s innovation-driven opening up development strategy.” said Hunan Xiangjiang New Area Administration Committee Director Li Shaoqun. “It will facilitate using the scientific research and talent resources of the National University Science and Technology Town around Yuelu Mountain, and developing artificial intelligence technology, so as to build a sci-tech innovation pioneering region, and expedite industrial upgrading in the Xiangjiang New Area.” He added.