For the first time, the YDSP Science & Technology Camp opened its doors to Year 2 students in the Integrated Programme, who joined their Year 3 schoolmates to learn more about defence science and technology.

During the week-long camp held from 30 November to 4 December 2009, the students were not only introduced to the basic principles of electronics and programming at Science Centre Singapore, they also got the opportunity to steal a peek inside the Singapore Armed Forces' latest mine-clearing vehicle: the Trailblazer.

Drawing inspiration from their field trip, the students paired up to build their own autonomous robots. The task: use artificial intelligence to outwit the other teams on the battlefield.

The Year 2 students had fun using LEGO bricks to construct autonomous rescue vehicles that could disable plastic surveillance radars, deactivate magnetic toy mines and ‘rescue' toy soldiers.

A lively mine-finding competition was organised for Year 3 students, during which teams of students had to programme robot tanks to search for and defuse as many ‘land mines' (mousetraps) as possible.

"It's quite amazing what the students managed to come up with in such a short time. It's a fine example of engineering ingenuity using limited resources," said DSO National Laboratories' Member of Technical Staff (Information Division) Fujishima Hikaru, who was one of the judges for the competition.

"At first, we didn't even know how to begin designing our robot, but our visit to the Trailblazer inspired us. One of our robot's special features was a device which extended to the floor and defused mines – just like the Trailblazer's flail system," said Samuel Tan from Hwa Chong Institution.

His team mate, Kwok Shun Git, found the camp thoroughly enjoyable: "It's most important to have fun – and we did! In the process of constructing and programming our robot, we also learnt some of the potential applications of what we have created. Oh, and I even learnt a new language!"

He was referring to the Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (more commonly known as BASIC), the computer language which the students used to programme their autonomous robots.

Lee Puay Ling from Nanyang Girls' High School and Mary Sim from Raffles Girls' School – the winning team from the Year 3 camp – had so much fun that they even used BASIC to write a cha-cha module for their robot.

"We liked the hands-on experience for this YDSP camp as we  usually don't get the chance to try things like soldering and programming. I also enjoyed the opportunity to meet new people!" Mary said, putting her arm around her team mate.