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Romanian ghost busters clinch Adoptabot Challenge

A team of high school pupils from Romania beat off stiff competition to win the second Adoptabot Challenge by programming a little robot bird as both ghost hunter and “spook scarer”

Competing via Skype, the youngsters from the Nicolae Balcescu High School beat all the UK-based teams. In the challenge, using their coding skills, teams have to come up with an imaginative scenario which uses some or all of the finch robot’s functions.

Each team is given Brunel computer science undergraduate mentors and the winners came up with a way of using the finch’s temperature sensors and lights to search a darkened child’s bedroom for ghostly heat signatures and then attack anything that might later go bump in the night.

College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences Dean, Professor David Gilbert said: “Adoptabot is a fantastic way to get the children involved in teamwork, concept design and problem solving. We were really pleased that the children showed creativity and confidence in their presentations.