Mini maestros: Team members from Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School in HCM City programme their robot at the International Robotics Competition in the Philippines. They won the junior division. — VNS Photo Nguyen Tuan Hoa

DA NANG (VNS) — HCM City's Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School has won the junior division at the International Robotics Competition in the Philippines.

Lieu Ngoc Bao Thanh, Dao Thien Long and Dinh Pham Ba Thi, beat two teams from SJK C Jalan Davidson School in Malaysia to take the title for Viet Nam on Saturday.

In the senior division, three teams from SJK C Jalan Davidson swept away the competition to beat opponents from Viet Nam, Malaysia and the Philippines.

It's the first time that a primary school team from Viet Nam has won the regional robot competition.

The country sent 24 teams from the first National Robothon competition in Da Nang last month.

The competition, titled ‘Smart City', drew 70 teams from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Viet Nam and the Philippines.

Each participating team had an hour to programme an automatic robot to compete for two minutes.

They had to monitor their robots to build a ‘smart city' for the future.

Robotics programmes have been introduced to over 3,000 primary school students in Ha Noi, Da Nang and HCM City since 2011.

Last year, Ha Noi hosted the International Robotics Competition at the My Dinh Sports Complex. — VNS