ADWC hosts HCT's Annual Robot Programming Competition

The purpose of the competition was to challenge student teams in the use of IT programming skills.

IT students from HCT's Abu Dhabi Women's College, Fujairah Women's College, Al Ain Women's College, and Sharjah Women's College competed in teams of three to complete a series of programming tasks involving 9797 Mindstorms NXT Robots and NXT-G Software.

The test of their programming was the robots' performance. Each team earned points based on their robot's ability to complete designated tasks, such as navigating a maze, circumnavigating obstacles, navigating a zigzag course and navigating a tabletop without falling off.

Prior to the start of each programmed mission, team members were given an opportunity to perform the necessary coding for the robot's program, check the robot's sensors and complete any necessary calibrations. Once the mission started, it was up to the robot to successfully complete the task its team had programmed it to do.

"This competition provided a lot of fun and a lot of learning for everyone involved," stated Jean Witthoft, ADWC's acting Chair of Information Technology. "Students had the chance to work together in teams to solve problems, learn more about the opportunities available in IT fields, and increase their confidence in overcoming obstacles in order to achieve success."

HCT introduced Lego's Mindstorm NXT Robots in classrooms in 2007. Learning to program the robots has increased student participation and performance in IT programming.

"The robots provide a hands-on, interactive approach for students to develop skills in the areas of critical thinking, problem-solving, and basic programming," said ADWC's Director, Dr. Bradley Cook.

At the end of the competition, points earned for each task were tallied, and the team with the highest number of combined points was declared the winner. All the participants are looking forward to working more with robots and further developing their programming skills.

Abu Dhabi Women's College is part of the Higher Colleges of Technology. All media references to the organization should be noted as the Higher Colleges of Technology's Abu Dhabi Women's College or Abu Dhabi Women's College of HCT.