Venue of Autonomous Cars City Tracking Challenge

Mixing the ingredients for making bath balls

Our autonomous car named after our group leader (with a camera in front of the car)

Taking photo with the city and autonomous cars

Visiting the office of Microsoft, learning ‘Hour of Code’ Minecraft

(Chinese Version)

Date: 1-3 August 2018
Venue: Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Tsing Yi & Chai Wan Campus)

Students: NG Hoi-shan, LAU Hang-yi (S1A)
Written by: Michelle LAU Hang-yi

This summer holiday was special because my classmate, Alison NG and I were nominated to participate in a 3D2N STEM Summer Camp which was organized by Vocational Training Council STEM Education Centre.

During these 3 days, a lot of activities were organized for us to enhance our interests and overall understanding in the latest and innovative technology related to STEM. In the first night, we had the opportunity to have dinner with professionals from the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers. They shared with us their reasons for choosing this occupation, their roles and the difficulties they face in work. It was inspiring!

The next day, we joined a workshop about beauty and personal care products. We learnt to make bath balls and mosquito repelling tiles using different ingredients.

The most special experience we had was visiting the office of Microsoft in Cyberport, a place not usually opened to public. To us, it was an unforgettable and awesome experience.

As smart city is becoming a global trend, this summer camp’s theme is on autonomous ‘computer vision’ vehicles. These vehicles are innovative because they do not rely on remote control but traffic signs. At the workshop, we first made some traffic signs, then assembled our car chassis. A camera was also installed on each car. When we put a traffic sign in front of it, it could recognize and execute the command. For example, if we put the sign ‘start’ in front of the camera, the car will move forward. Next, we learnt some basic programming to control our cars. There was a competition at the end of the camp. We had to control our car from the starting point to the finishing point as fast as possible, hitting fewer obstacles, as time was added if you hit them. Sometimes the car would overrun the command, resulting in hitting the obstacles. This situation was very common, but our group avoided it by controlling the speed of our car, tuning it slower. Finally, we won the competition by hitting no obstacles! We all felt thrilled.