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Student ambassadors from the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE) brought joy to children at the Po Leung Kuk orphanage in Causeway Bay with a demonstration of the Super Cat.

The Super Cat was the winning invention at this year's IVE Project and Skills Competition.

Projects from the competition were used by the Vocational Training Council's (VTC) Community Service Programme  to help serve the community.

The Po Leung Kuk children were shown the robotic 'cat' and 'mouse' with built-in artificial intelligence. The cat chases the mouse within a certain area.

The Super Cat robots are operated using ultrasonic transmitters and infra-red sensors.

A team of four second year students from the IVE's Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department at Morrison Hill designed and produced Super Cat.

Team leader Ngai Wai-pong  said they were inspired by the electronic pets which had caught on among local teenagers a year ago. They believed the project  had great commercial potential.

Wai-pong said: 'Imagine that at an airport or supermarket, we have a transmitter which signals to a trolley equipped with a receiver.

'The trolley could automatically follow us wherever we went. This would relieve us of the burden of looking after our luggage while we are going through immigration or shopping,' he said.

The team's lecturer, Fung Ming-Kong, said: 'It took them  about six months to complete the project, which was part of their annual course assignment.

'The Super Cat was entirely  their own idea. I only gave them advice and instructions when they came across technical problems,' he said.

The Super Cat demonstration followed those of the Automatic Guitarist and the Automatic Vacuum Cleaner the previous week at other social service centres.

VTC senior information officer Christine Chie Sze-kwan said: 'The Community Service Programme is a highlight of the VTC's Millennium Vocational Education Awareness Month. It is a new initiative to show our students'  commitment to society and to raise awareness of vocational education as an attractive alternative to traditional academic study.'

IVE student ambassador Edwin Sun Ho-pun, studying in dustrial engineering at Tsing Yi, said being an ambassador was a unique experience.  He said meeting people had helped him come up with ideas for new products to meet their needs more effectively.

Another IVE student ambassador, Sharon Chan Suet-yee, a third year student at the Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Chai Wan, said: 'I was nominated by my department to be one of the ambassadors.

'It was a very meaningful job because we not only brought people happiness, but we also gave local teenagers an idea of what the IVE could offer them.'



Hi-tech Super Cat brings children joy