Haoyuan Gu (Year 10) and Nathaniel Ou (Year 12), alongside their teammate from Whitby Collegiate, were recently crowned VEX IQ National Robotics Champions. Their victory marks the first time in 20 years that a Wellington team has claimed the national title and in doing so, qualified them to compete at the EX Robotics World Championship in the United States at the end of April.

The road to the championship wasn’t easy – the team battled through 10 rounds of intense competition, testing their design, programming, and problem-solving skills against some of the best robotics teams in the country.

For Haoyuan, robotics is all about creativity and improvement. He enjoys building on ideas and finding ways to optimise designs. With a strong interest in technology, he’s already thinking about a future career in engineering. Nathaniel has been fascinated by advanced technology for several years. He had hoped to enter the competition back in Year 10, but didn’t have a team at the time.

Now, they’re both part of a national championship-winning team and hope their success will inspire more Wellington College boys to get involved in robotics.

Next stop: the VEX Robotics World Championship in the United States, where they’ll compete against the best teams from around the globe. But to get there, the team needs help to raise funds to help cover travel and competition costs.

If you’d like to support Haoyuan and Nathaniel as they represent WC, Wellington, and New Zealand on the world stage, please consider making a contribution:

https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-teens-represent-nz-at-robotics-worlds

Thank you for your generous support.