PROJECT BASED LEARNING IN THE CONTEXT OF CUTTING-EDGE ROBOTICS COMPETITION

RoboMaster is an annual robotics competition pitting student’s cutting edge robot designs in a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) gamified shoot-out battle. The highly technical-advanced competition rules are designed to encourage innovation in robotics automation and intelligent systems while placing robot battles at centre-stage. It manages to display the beauty of engineering technology and popularize robotics to the wider audience by balancing technical challenge and entertainment value. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) sees RoboMaster as a unique platform for promoting STEM to the wider university student body. Through 4 years of team development and student participations, we have homegrown a group of outstanding scientific and technological engineers who have excelled in both academic research and entrepreneurial ventures. In this paper we review the development, growth and success of the 4 years of the HKUST RoboMaster ENTERPRIZE team and evaluate assessable learning outcomes of the competition as a project course. The degree of engineering design complexity and resulting the comprehensive learning outcomes, inspired the launch of a new bachelor programme in which many foundation engineering courses are replaced by year-long cornerstone project courses mirroring the RoboMaster project course. The outcome is a more individualized high-impact programme allowing students to build their engineering studies around technologies of our time.