Local robotics junkie Luke Taylor has made it into the group of top 15 finalists in the first annual Google Science Fair.
Taylor, a learner at the German International School in Cape Town, is one of five finalists in the 13 to 14 year age group. All of the finalists will be flown to Google headquarters, in Mountain View, California, to participate in the final judging round and awards ceremony on 11 July.
Competing against 7 500 entrants, from more than 90 countries, Taylor became one of 60 semi-finalists, and now one of only 15 finalists.
The panel of judges will select one winner from each category and one grand prize-winner from among the three age category winners.
Taylor's project, Programming in Pure English, aims to help robots understand commands written in natural human language.
“Programming robots can be slow and challenging,” says Taylor. “I asked myself whether it would not be possible to design an application that could translate English instructions directly into compilable code that the robot could execute. If successful, it should be of great assistance to those struggling with existing graphic and text-based programming languages.”
The resulting application, called SIMPLE, analyses and translates English sentences into C-code and compiles and downloads these, while also assisting users via prompts that request required information to program the robot effectively.
“I am passionate about computer science, recently discovering my interest in the sub-category of artificial intelligence,” says Taylor. “I enjoy creating robots and applications, with dedicated algorithms and software.”
Last year, Taylor put together his own robotics team to compete in Moonbots, an online competition modelled on the Google Lunar X Prize, in which student teams were challenged to design robots using Lego Mindstorms to perform simulated lunar missions.
“We were proud to put Africa on the map by making the finals,” says Taylor.
“All I have learned about robots and computer science is self-taught, finding facts and explanations wherever I can and acquiring true understanding through practical application and in many instances trial and error.”
It is Taylor's dream to win a scholarship to study at a top university such as MIT, and he hopes that his participation in competitions such as the Google Science Fair will help him to get there.
To see Taylor's project Web site, visit http://sites.google.com/site/lukesgsfentry/home.
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