Students take pragmatic approach to robotics

Unlike some schoolboys, Yin Mingde is counting the days until he starts a new term in September at one of the leading schools in the capital, Beijing No 4 High School.

His eagerness for school is understandable, but it also owes a great deal to an after-school program that revealed the fascinating world of robotics to him.

The 12-year-old won the top prize for creative robotics design at the China Adolescent Robotics Competition in July for building a robot that could differentiate between the white and black pieces on weiqi, a Chinese board game.