DkIT Computing Students Triumph at National RoboCode Battle!

Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) were the winners of the 2023 Irish finals of the RoboCode competition which was held at the TUS-Thurles campus. The DkIT winning team comprised of two first year computing students Jiri Uhlir and Samuel Sukovsky. Jiri Uhlir is studying on the BSc (Honours) in Computing in Augmented & Virtual Reality and Samuel Sukovsky is studying on the BSc (Honours) in Computing in Games Development.

The RoboCode competition is aimed at 1st-year programming students. RoboCode is an excellent opportunity for students to showcase their programming skills and advance their knowledge of programming concepts. In the RoboCode competition, teams write computer code that enables robot tanks to battle against each other in an arena. The robots need to be programmed to avoid being hit and must move around the arena without manual control. RoboCode provides an opportunity for participants to demonstrate their programming abilities and advance their knowledge of GUI programming, API usage, and artificial intelligence.

The DkIT robot, named “Legionary”, showcased impressive behaviour, with clever target acquisition and perimeter awareness, winning more than 95% of its battles. The competition is open to all universities and colleges on the island of Ireland. DkIT’s recent win places the Institute on top of the leader board of wins for the competition, with four wins over the years. The victory is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the DkIT student branch of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The ACM, led by their branch secretary, 4th year computing student Jessica Savage, played a leading role in selecting DkIT’s winning team. The DkIT team was selected as the winner of an in-house Game Jam, which was organised by the ACM in February. The two students were accompanied to Thurles by the ACM Chairperson, 2nd year computing student Ryan Habis. The ACM’s involvement in the Game Jam and the RoboCode competition highlights the importance of DkIT students engaging in extra-curricular activities and taking a leadership role in organising student events.

Derek O’Reilly, Senior Lecturer, Department of Visual & Human-Centred Computing, DkIT, said, “We are delighted with DkIT’s team victory in the 2023 Irish finals of RoboCode! This win is a testament to the skills and dedication of the computing students in DkIT. Congratulations to the winners, and a big thank you to the ACM and their members for their work in organising the DkIT Game Jam and getting the competitors to Thurles for the RoboCode final”

 (left to right) Dr. Janice O’Connell (Head of Dept of Information Technology, TUS), Dr Liam Noonan (Event organiser), Ryan Habis (DkIT ACM Chairperson) , Jiri Uhlir (DkIT team) and Samuel Sukovsky (DkIT team).