WAIAKEA HIGH SCHOOL ROBOTICS TEAM REPRESENTS HAWAI`I AT INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Waiakea High School's Robotics Club returned this week from the 16th annual Micro Robot Maze Contest in Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan.

The first American secondary school to participate, the team's 17 students competed against college and high school teams with micro robots that measured either one cubic inch or one centimeter in size.  With components that small, the students were required to use microscopes or magnifying lenses for much of their work.

Led by Waiakea High School teachers Dale Olive and Eric Hagiawara and mentor Riley Ceria, a Waiakea High School and University of Hawai`i Electrical Engineering graduate, the students earned first place in the Fully Autonomous Micro Robot Maze Competition (robot name: Teeny Humuhumu), third place in the Micro Robot Racer Competition (robot name: Stich.05) and the Special Judges' Award, 5th Overall Standing for the Remote Controlled Micro Robot Maze Competition (robot name: Teeny Humuhumu).

"It was very exhilarating, working with an electrical engineer," said Waiakea High School junior Kelson Lau.  "You couldn't believe you could build something that small.  And competing in Japan was indescribable."

Earlier this year, Governor Lingle met with members of the Waiakea High School Robotics Team before they left Hawai`i for the 2007 FIRST Robotics Championships in Atlanta, Georgia.  The Governor is supporting robotics as part of the Hawai`i Innovation Initiative to engage Hawai`i students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.

• Read more in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Hawai`i Tribune-Herald.