From the Lord Mayor's Office
Future scientists bring Wollongong to the world
Project Bucephalus have secured their place in our city's history as the first recipients of the Lord Mayor’s Local Hero Award.
On Monday, I had the honour of presenting the inaugural award to this group of high school students, including their mentors Andrew and Lyndall Clark, at Wollongong TAFE.
This new award acknowledges the extraordinary things locals are doing and compliments existing awards like the annual City of Wollongong Awards.
And this team are certainly beyond extraordinary when it comes to robotics, science and technology having achieved incredible success in the past year.
Their biggest accomplishment comes from the FIRST Robotics Championship in USA. They received the highest award in the global FIRST Program – the Championship Impact Award – for being the best team to embody the mission of FIRST through education, innovation and lasting impact.
And to top it off, they were admitted to the FIRST Hall of Fame, being only the fourth team out of the US to be inducted.
I’m lucky enough to have met Project Bucephalus before, but this visit felt different. Upon seeing them in their natural environment, I fear the word extraordinary not be enough to describe their talents. As soon as I stepped into their space at TAFE, I could feel the energy and buzz!
From design to build, they’re engineering robots that are sparked by just their imagination and innovation. They’ve got resources to do testing and mentors to give advice.
But most importantly, they’ve got each other, and it’s exciting what you can do when you’ve got like-minded people around you.
I hope this award encourages them to keep pursing their work as it makes a difference not only in Wollongong but globally.
As I look back on the day, it made me reflect on why I’ve started this award – to congratulate those who would normally go under the radar for their everyday, yet extraordinary, efforts.
I’m proud of the city I call home, and in large it’s because of the community who are making it a better place every day. This is typified by teams like Project Bucephalus Robotics.
I look forward to our future recipients, and hope that with each award, it also inspires our community.
