Late May, 2010 - Kiwi competitors returning from the 2010 VEX Robotics Competition World Championship

Ambassador Huebner with one of the winning teams at the World Robotics Championships: Albany Home Schoolers, a.k.a. Free Range Robotics.

In late May the Ambassador met many of the successful Kiwi competitors returning from the 2010 VEX Robotics Competition World Championship in Dallas, Texas, at a celebration held at Auckland’s Sky City.  The various schools competed as individual teams, under the banner of Kiwibots New Zealand.  Kiwibots was  supported by the U.S. Embassy in Wellington with a recent US $1500 grant to help them make it to the World Champs.  This year’s championship event included approximately 400 teams from 14 countries around the world.  The Ambassador met Chris Hamling, National Manager of the NZ Robotics Charitable Trust/Kiwbots, plus all the main Kiwi winners: two of this year’s three Grand Champions in the secondary school division are from the Home School in Albany and from Kristin School on Auckland’s North Shore.  Another New Zealand team, from Rangitoto College on the North Shore, took the prestigious Computer Aided Design Championship trophy, as well as an award for extraordinary teamwork.  Yet another New Zealand team, Glenfield College of Auckland, received the Build Award for the craftsmanship and construction of its robot. [Read more on Ambassador Huebner's blog]