Taiwan Teams Shine at the 2024 FIRST and VEX Robotics World Championships in Texas!
Every April and May, grand robotics competitions take place in the Texas cities of Houston and Dallas. The competition season began with the FIRST Championship, held in the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston from April 16 to 19, which attracted an estimated 50,000 attendees over four exciting days. This year's competition theme explored the role of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) in the arts through collaborative teamwork. The fiercely competitive event featured 596 teams from around the world. Among them were nine teams of young students from Taiwan, all passionate about robotics, who traveled to Texas to put their skills to the test.
New Taipei Municipal Taishan Senior High School won the Rookie Inspiration Award, New Taipei Municipal San Min High School won the Rookie All-Star Award, and Taipei First Girls High School won the Judge’s Award.
Deputy Director General Wang Kun-Yuan王崑源 of the Bureau of Education of the Tainan City Government led a delegation to observe the FIRST competition. With the assistance of the Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Houston, the delegation also visited ILTexas Katy-Westpark High School, Houston Christian High School, and Stafford STEM Magnet School to discuss grassroots promotion of STEM and robotics education.
Later in April, 82 elementary and secondary school students from Taiwan went to Dallas to compete and interact with over 2,000 teams from around the world at the 2024 VEX Robotics World Championship, from April 25 to May 3. Their 19 robotics teams also achieved impressive results, bringing home nine awards through their hard work and dedication and showcasing Taiwan to the world throughout the competition.
Team 78181A-Genesis, a junior high school team from the International Bilingual School at Hsinchu Science Park, stood out amid the stiff competition and won the Excellence Award. Straight after the competition, Yvonne Hsiao, Director-General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston, conveyed congratulations from President Tsai Ing-wen 蔡英文 and Premier Lai Ching-te 賴清德to the award-winning team following their outstanding performance in this world-class competition, and she thanked them for highlighting Taiwan's STEM capabilities on the international stage.
Prof. Liu Yuan-Zhen 劉遠楨, Vice President of National Taipei University of Education and Chairperson of the Chinese Association for Computer and Educational Technology (CACET), Prof. Li Tsai-Yen 李蔡彥, President of National Chengchi University and honorary chairperson of CACET, and the team’s school principal Charles Chang Chien 張簡瑞璨also congratulated team 78181A-Genesis online for their achievements.
Taiwan strives to foster an educational environment which inspires passion and innovation in STEM fields and provides many opportunities for students to participate in robotics competitions, and thanks to the vibrant environment this creates and the hard work and dedication of the students, educators, and coaches, robotics teams from Taiwan continue to achieve excellence on the international stage.