A GROUP of Singapore students recently became the first non-American team to win an international robotics competition held in Atlanta in the United States.

Comprising 10 students from Singapore Chinese Girls' School (SCGS), River Valley High and Juying Primary, the team beat 81 others from countries such as Canada, China and India.

This was the 10th year of the First Lego League World Festival, which requires teams to design and build robots capable of completing set tasks.

This year, students had to programme their robots to, for example, place a solar panel on the roof of a model house and push a coal cart down a train track.

They also had to make a presentation on conserving the environment and suggest ways to shrink a household's power bill.

SCGS student Michelle Tee, 15, said: 'We didn't think we would win. The other countries were very good, and it was our first time.'

She said the team impressed the judges with its presentation by lacing it with humour and song.

The team's robot - built here over a few months - also logged a near-perfect score in the performance rounds and made it to the top 18.

Mr Yeow Yuen Ten, the teacher-in-charge of Juying Primary's robotics club, said the students sacrificed many weekends and school holidays, and frequently worked late into the night to build their robot.

The three schools forming Singapore's dream team had won top awards at the local leg of the competition last December.

SUMATHI V. SELVARETNAM

This article was first published in The Straits Times on May 9, 2008.