They are here to teach, not to steal your job

He had the idea of bringing the system to China in 2012, when he was in Beijing attending a national seminar on physical robots, on behalf of the Carnegie Robotic Academy.

At least 20 Chinese universities were at the event, and he found that many wanted to set up robot courses, but did not have qualified teachers, professional textbooks or robot platforms, let alone know how to run courses.

"Chinese students are very good at showing off innovative technologies in competitions, but China doesn't have a good robot education system," he says.

He adds the biggest defect in China's robot education system, however, is that students are not taught how to program and just use existing written codes, which are not enough to develop their own talent further, so he decided to bring RobotC to China.

"RobotC language can support the world's biggest robot platforms. It can help children become more innovative, and college students and workers gain more technical skills," he says.

He chose Xi'an as it was less expensive and crowded than Beijing or Shanghai, but also because the region boasts about 60 universities.

He is now looking for a subsidiary in Shanghai, and more outlets are planned in other cities.

His plan is to increase collaboration with universities and schools by setting up robots in college laboratories.

So far two universities and several primary schools have adopted the system, and the goal is to bring it to 100 colleges, 100 middle schools and 100 primary schools, providing specialist robot training for teachers and technicians.

It is planned to offer training online, so the language can also be brought to people in remote villages or locations that do not have the resources to support robot education.

Sy is confident that despite robots still being a novelty to many in China, their use is set to grow fast.

In 2011, US President Barack Obama decided to give greater priority to the use of robotics in teaching the vital fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and Sy believes it is now important for China to move in that direction.

"That is why we want to bring this kind of robot education to as many parts of China as we can, to make it part of the Chinese education system. This training will definitely help people become more logical and confident."

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