On October 6-10, 2023, at the 7th FIRST Global Challenge held in Singapore, Pan Yuanzhao, Li Zhou, Yang Ziwei, Huang Shengyang, Feng Zifan, Dan Wenrui from the International Department of BNDS and teenagers from 191 countries and regions competed together. After 3 rounds of 16 matches, they finally won the world championship with the highest total score, achieving a historic breakthrough for the Chinese team.

A Review of the Road for the Chinese Team to Win the Championship 

The FIRST Global Challenge (FGC), also known as the “Robotics Olympics”, is an international competition aimed at 14–18-year-olds. The competition is held once a year, and each country or region sends a team as a representative. By building robots, they try to solve global environmental problems, hoping to encourage and enhance the enthusiasm of young people for STEM, develop their professional literacy and skills, and help them continue to explore in the fields of engineering and technology in the future.

▲ Chinese team members on the award podium

The theme of this year’s competition is “The Age of Hydrogen Energy”. Students comprehensively apply science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to focus on this issue. The competition field abstracts hydrogen and oxygen atoms into small and large balls. Students design and make robots, and write programs to complete the preparation, storage, and transportation of hydrogen energy.

▲ Chinese team’s robots on the field

The 4-day competition was full of twists and turns, and the Chinese team advanced to the semi-finals with a qualifying victory. However, during the process of advancing from the semi-finals to the finals, their form underwent a twist, requiring them to surpass the previous team by 40 points in a crucial set-in order to advance to the finals. All members of the Chinese team calmed down and analyzed each previous game in detail, adjusted their strategies in a timely manner, actively communicated with teammates and opponents, and ultimately surpassed themselves and achieved world number one.

▲ The Chinese team accepts referee evaluation

At the same time, Chinese team students, after submitting engineering notes and three rounds of on-site defense, also won one of the highest awards set up in the competition - the Zhang Heng Engineering Design Gold Award. This award aims to reward robots for integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in challenge competitions, and demonstrating excellent engineering skills and efficient elegance. This gold award fully demonstrates the professional level of Chinese team robots.

▲ Chinese team members waving national flags enter the field

▲ Group photo of Chinese team members