New summer robotics camp at Notre Dame to welcome students from China

A group of 30 students from Beijing, China, will be traveling to Pontiac to participate in NDPMA's first robotics and engineering camp themed for middle school students aged 10-14 years old.

Students from China have traditionally done very well in world robotics competitions. In fact, last year at the VEX Robotics World Championship, held in Louisville, Kentucky, Chinese students took home eight of the 21 available championships or awards from the more than 1,400 teams that hailed from 30 different countries in the April 2017 competition.

Notre Dame teams that competed last April also did very well with one of the lower-division teams getting second place in their division and two of Notre Dame’s middle division teams earning rankings in the top 20.

Now, east will meet west this coming summer as a group of 30 students from Beijing, China, will be traveling to Pontiac to participate in the NDPMA’s first robotics and engineering camp themed for middle school students aged 10-14 years old.

Louise Palardy, longtime mentor and robotics advocate at NDPMA, is organizing the camp, which will run July 15 through July 30. She is working with a coach in Beijing who will be sending his students to work alongside 30 students from Notre Dame.

“The students have a common interest in VEX IQ and will work together to learn about each others' culture, language and no doubt friendship,” Palardy said. “The Beijing students will stay with host families, our camp base will be at Notre Dame, and we will have some days that we stay at the cafeteria and build robots and other days where we are planning college tours, engineering projects, plant tours and museum visits. It is going to be a lot of fun and both our kids and the Chinese kids will certainly get a lot out of it.”

Notre Dame VEX IQ robotics mentor Louise Palardy is organizing the special summer camp with Changqing Ye, far left, who coaches youth robotics in China.

Notre Dame students celebrate a win at a VEX IQ challenge event held last November at Kettering University.

Notre Dame's Team 3333T, "The Terminators," Samuel Phillips, Hayden Howard and Hills Howard, won second place in their division at the last VEX Robotics World Championship, which were held in Louisville, Kentucky.

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org.

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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.