Invention for Schools Contest

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is one of the main focuses in 21st century education. The Faculty of Engineering, The University of Hong Kong consider it important to enhance the young generations' interest and creativity in STEM. The younger generation with the ability to program and integrate hardware and software can solve problems better, and be able turn their innovative ideas into practical and valuable outputs. Now with increased availability of low cost and easily programmable credit card-sized computers that can connect a computer or TV, students can put their programming creations into practical use.

The "Invention for Schools Contest" is held by the HKU Faculty of Engineering under the project titled "Programming Creations for Schools", supported by HKU Knowledge Exchange Fund. Over a hundred students from primary 2 to secondary 5 joined the competition. They are required to use credit card-sized computers to build inventions that could be useful to their schools. A series of talks were conducted in October to December to enhance the participants' understanding of credit card-sized computers, such as Raspberry Pi and Arduino.

The participants were interested in learning how to program and interface hardware with credit card-sized computers. "I'd like to create my own invention using Raspberry Pi", one of the participants said. Another primary school students said that she would like to build an intelligent school. Teachers were also interested in the event. "I would like to introduce credit card-sized computers, such as Arduino, to my students. This is the trend of the world", said one of the primary school teachers.

"It's a worldwide trend to learn and use these low cost credit card-sized computers. Through the competition, we hope that we will not only train the logical thinking of students but also provide a channel for their efforts to be translated into practical applications that can be appreciated." said Dr. Beta C. L. Yip, core member of the project.

Participants were interacting with demos.	It's Q&A session to win a gift!

What are they looking at?	Trying to build a circuit.

The organizers in HKU appreciates RS Components Ltd. for supporting the competition. They introduced many applications of credit card-sized computers with interesting demonstrations in a talk, and sponsored the souveniors and prizes of competition.

The participants will submit their inventions in May 2016. Let's stay tuned to see their inventions.

The "Invention for Schools Contest" is under the "Programming Creations for Schools” project led by Professor Francis Lau, funded by the HKU Knowledge Exchange Fund, and supported by RS Components Ltd. For more details about the competition, please visit the event page or Facebook.