Simon's Rock Students Kent Nakai and Kyle Lockwood Win Community Award at RoboCup Eindhoven 2024

GREAT BARRINGTON, MA — Simon’s Rock students Kent Nakai and Kyle Lockwood return from the 2024 RoboCup Junior Worldwide Tournament held in Eindhoven, Netherlands with the “Community Award” for their participation.

First-year student Nakai won third place in the RoboCup Junior Asia-Pacific 2023 held this past December in South Korea and returned for the 2024 World Cup tournament with Lockwood. The pair received the Community Award, which is voted on by each World Cup competitor - often representatives of countries across the world - and awarded to the team or nation that excelled in sharing, conversing, and problem solving with other countries.

“This is the second year in a row that I have won the RoboCup Junior American competition in the rescue robot category,” said Nakai. “Last year, I won before I entered Simon's Rock, but this year I participated with Kyle Lockwood, a current junior.”

This was Nakai’s first year to participate in the World Championships. “Last December, I participated in the RobocupJunior Asia Pacific competition in Korea representing Simon's Rock. I participated with current sophomore Yinhan Liao.”

For 27 years, RoboCup has been the premier championship for robotics, aimed at sharing knowledge, accelerating developments and nurturing an interest in robotics all over the world. Over 2,000 participants compete each year, representing 45 countries, and inspiring over 50,000 visitors. Previously hosted in Nagoya, Sydney, and Bangkok, the city of Eindhoven, Netherlands became the home of RoboCup during July 17th through the 21st.

The tournament includes five categories for competition: RoboCupSoccer, RoboCupRescue, RoboCup@Home, RoboCupJunior and RoboCup Industrial, including areas of presentation such as football spectacles, rescue missions and household challenges. Previously, Nakai and Lockwood competed in the ‘rescue robot’ category and won 1st place at the US RoboCup competition in May, representing the United States.

“I learn a lot by participating in competitions,” said Nakai. “ And I also learned a lot this time at the World Cup. Participants come from all over the world and have different skills. It was a great opportunity to learn and communicate with the participants and learn from each other. Next year, we hope to create a rescue robot that can win first place!”