Island School has had a very successful 2025-26 Robotics Season, culminating in 40807B - ‘Fried Chicken’ (Koen Koo [09ND]; Gene Oh [09EK]; Jamie Wat [09EK]; Janice Wat [09EC]) winning the Build Award at the prestigious HK Tech Hong Kong Tech Challenge Junior 2026 - Middle School VIQRC Hong Kong Championship 2026. We also had 40807A - ‘MESM’ (Mandy Jia [09WK]; Mayu Kohno [09DQ]; Sylas Ng [09EK]) competing at the event. Although MESM did not win an individual award, they did make it out of the Qualifying rounds and into the Final rounds. Their robot may not have been as impressive, but they drove it better on the day (and did very well at the Skills Event earlier, where special mention has to be made for their Autonomous Skills score).
The Robot that won the Design Award
Earlier in the Season, ‘Chum Bucket’ (Jonas Chan [10FV]; Rupert Gu [10RC]; Christopher Tsang [10NF]) came second in the Hong Kong Tech Challenge Junior VEX IQ IN THE 852 - VIQRC (ES/MS) Mix & Match Qualifying Event hosted by American International School Hong Kong.
Both events had close to 100 Teams competing, so this was a very successful season for Island School Robotics Teams.
Not resting on their laurels, Koen, Mandy and Mayu have recently started as Mentors to the Junior Robotics Team across the road at Carmel Primary School: we are hoping that this is a relationship that can grow as we move forward with Island School students able to help out these younger roboteers.
Our Semester 2 Elements Robotics Class is now underway for our second Y7-8 cohort this academic year. They will also be putting their skills to the test with the current VEX IQ Challenge (Mix and Match) and we may host a competition of our own for those students closer to the end of the Academic year, depending on their readiness!
A big ‘THANK YOU’ to the support from the Parents this year who have organised travel to and from the various competitions latterly - I hope that the above students will return and build on their skills next year as the next VEX IQ Challenge is released, sharing their knowledge with the next batch of Island School roboteers!
Written by Mr. Radcliffe
