Students to control robots on the international space station

When Gosford High School students Luke Tuthill and James Wright were asked how they feel about having their programming code used on the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Zero Robotics Championship Final, silence hangs in the air. Neither student knows how to describe the significance of the event, except to say “controlling robots in space; need I say more?” To them it’s one of the biggest wins in their school career and is something they’re incredibly proud of.

Zero Robotics, led in Australia by the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies, is one of the world’s biggest computer programming competitions. This year five Australian high schools earned a place in the Championship Final – a huge feat for the students, some of whom had limited exposure to programming before the competition.

On Friday 27 January students from Fort St High School, Gosford High School, James Ruse Agricultural High School, Barker College and North Sydney Boys High School, will witness their code used on NASA robots known as SPHERES (Synchronized, Position, Hold, Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellites). The competition will be live-streamed to Earth to a global audience.

For Luke and James it’s not about winning the championship. “We’ve already achieved what we wanted to by having the chance to send our code to space, but of course a win or high placing would be amazing”, said James.

This is the first time Gosford High School has taken part in the competition – the result of Luke’s motivation and drive to be a part of the competition after being told about it by his science teacher.

During the seven rounds of matches leading up to the final, the students enjoyed working with both their own school mates and the international alliance they had to form. “We had the chance to collaborate with two talented teams from the USA which was fun and interesting when building our strategy for the final”, said Luke.

As a result of the competition process James and Luke have learnt a great deal about programming. “Each round became harder as the competition progressed and required more coding knowledge, strategy and teamwork, which was possible thanks to the advice of our teacher and Sydney University mentors”, said James.

The six-month experience has increased both student confidence and interest in Computer Science, showing just how far a career in IT can take you: including space.

Luke has now completed Year 12 and will be starting a Bachelor of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Sydney this year. He’s excited about this next step: “I’m looking forward to growing my knowledge and experience in programming and getting involved this time as a mentor to help the next Gosford team participate in Zero Robotics”, said Luke.