Two junior high students from Hongling Middle School won the championship in the junior high school category of the World Robot Contest that wrapped up on September 12, becoming the latest Futian District students to bring home top world honors in sci-tech innovation. Less than two weeks before Wang Yizhi and Li Jiamu with Hongling Middle School were crowned at the World Robot Contest, students from Futian Science Middle School won two gold and one silver medals at the Invention and New Product Exposition (INPEX) that concluded September 1 in the U.S. city of Pittsburgh. The school also topped the country in terms of the total number of medals won, according to DT News. Hongling Middle School and Futian Science Middle School are two representatives of the secondary education institutions in Futian District that in recent years have put forth great effort in encouraging sci-tech innovation among students. Wang, captain of Hongling’s robotics team, led the team to win third prize in an international competition last year. After that, Wang and his team have worked out various competition plans by following their mentor Li Mao, who runs a studio that engages in integrating science teaching and the application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and robotics, and who has undergone multiple simulation competitions. Their efforts paid off and last week fetched the top prize in the world competition. Hongling Middle School has been made one of Shenzhen’s top 10 science and technology innovation education demonstration bases, and the Shenzhen Science Popularization Education Base by the city authority. Its science faculty has also won numerous provincial and municipal honors in Guangdong for their students’ outstanding performances in science and technology events. In recent years Futian Science Middle School has also won the city’s honorary title of “Shenzhen Intellectual Property Demonstration School,” and its Five-star Maker Camp was included in “Shenzhen’s Top 10 Students’ Associations.” Students with Futian Science Middle School have won more than 1,000 innovation awards in major science and technology competitions at home and abroad. He Yingchao, head of Futian Science Middle School, said that the school aims to become an incubator for talents in the field of AI technology. The eye-catching achievements made by Futian schools are closely related to the district’s education authority that has made sci-tech innovation one of its priorities in school education. According to official statistics, the Futian District Government has invested an annual 80 million yuan (US$12 million) in science and technology innovation education projects over the past three years, sponsoring the establishment of a district-level youth maker center with all kinds of resources available, a youth maker academy, and 17 sci-tech innovation bases. More than 60 schools, both primary and secondary, across the district have set up diversified STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) maker spaces. Students in Futian have obtained more than 1,000 patents. (Wei Jie) | 