With the model of “robot for loading and unloading goods” in the field of environmental protection and economic development, Bui Minh Chien, who is a pupil of class 9A of Thanh Gia Secondary School located in Gia Vien district (Ninh Binh), won the first prize at the second creativity contest for teenagers and children in the province held in 2011.

Born and bred in a farming family, at his early age Bui Minh Chien understood thoroughly his parents’ strenuous farm work. Although at that time he was still a kid, Chien always wanted to do something to help and ease their burden.

“Seeing my parents carry rice heavily and climbed up very high to store rice every day, I feel sympathetic to them. So I got the idea to build a robot, which operated like a sand crane, to lift up the goods without spending much energy,” Chien said.

Meeting us at his school, he appeared in a small and thin figure with bright eyes and quite shy and quiet characteristic. Chien said modestly “When bringing my work to the contest, I only hoped that I would take the consolation prize to show to my parents; I never thought that I would be able to achieve such a high result.”

We are told that after studying in class and helping family, Chien always made use of all his free time to make the model on his weekends. It was the most interesting and meaningful time to him as he could do what he loved.

Being good at Physics, with the knowledge of mechanical movement which he learned in class as well as in books and newspapers, Chien painstakingly assembled and continuously innovated. Chien added that he often watched video tutorials of making machinery online. These were very useful sources for him to implement his ideas.

Besides materials recycled from the damaged furniture of his family such as devices of cooker, dryer, and toys, he also bought more items from the vintage stores like aluminum, plastic, and electric wires... every day to assemble the model.

In process of implementing the idea, although there were times when failure struck, he did not discourage but made more effort to find out what he did wrong and how to correct it. For instance, when he started to build the robot’s arms, Chien had tried his best to control the robot’s arm but he did not know why robot arm clamp still failed to hold things tightly. After a period of careful recalculation, he decided to stick a sponge and add a gear into the robot’s arms. It turned out that he finally succeeded and for the first time he could controll his robot to pick a small glass bowl.

After three months of hard working plus guidance and support of the teachers, Chien had finished the model for the test. The model of “robot for loading and unloading goods” is 25cm in height, 50cm in length, and has 4 wheelers, building pad, an arm with two-finger clamp, and a 360^o rotating platform. The arm is divided into two joints with two fingers which can grasp like the human’s and it can pick up an object from one side to another side without moving but rotating on the building pad. Combined with the controller, this robot can perform functions such as going forward or backward and turning left or right. It is received high appreciations from the jury.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Ninh, the teacher-in-charge of Gia Thanh Secondary School said: “Bui Minh Chien has the qualities of a dutiful and intelligent with a  great love for creativity since his childhood. It is an honor for our school as well as Young Pioneers’s activities when Chien won the contest, I hope he keeps trying to make his talent shine again next year.”

Additional to the first prize, Chien also achieved another prize in the contest – prize for most beautiful model. This is great encouragement for the studious schoolboy, Bui Minh Chien, so that he could strive and make his dream of being a mechanical engineer come true.