What to know
- Toronto Grade 12 student Nathan Yizhou Han and his VEX Robotics Team 16610A Level 5 won the inaugural Robot Intelligence Award at the VEX AI World Championship at UC Berkeley, competing against 51 teams worldwide.
- The team earned the award for its advanced autonomous robot, which combines perception, decision-making, path planning, localization, and multi-robot coordination.
- Han is now developing an AI-powered website and app to help people experiencing homelessness find food, shelter, water, washrooms and other support services. He hopes to have a first draft ready in October, with Toronto as the test city before eventually expanding across Canada.
- Inspired by seeing people experiencing homelessness near celebrations at Toronto City Hall during the FIFA World Cup, Han says he wants to use AI to tackle real-world problems and hopes other young people will use their skills to help their communities.
A Toronto high school student took home an international robotics award made exclusively for his team, and he’s keeping the momentum going to try to help people experiencing homelessness.
Grade 12 student Nathan Yizhou Han and his VEX Robotics Team 16610A Level 5 became the inaugural recipients of the Robot Intelligence Award at the VEX AI World Championship at UC Berkeley this year.
Judges reviewed Level 5’s autonomous robotic system and found its work in autonomy, perception, navigation, and intelligent system design was unable to match existing award categories, according to the VEX engineering team and Robolabs Foundation.
The team’s system was able to implement perception, decision-making, path planning, localization, and multi-robot coordination into their robot, allowing it to independently figure out what was happening on the competition field and problem-solve on its own.
“We [got] it after the conversation,” Han told Now Toronto. “I wrote the email to the CEO, and he recognised [us] for the robotic charging system.”
The Dublin Robotics Club allegedly shared the email in an Instagram post.
It was a memorable moment for Han.
“I’m feeling very excited, and it’s my honour to get this award,” he said.
Level 5 competed against 51 other elite AI robotics teams from around the world at the championship.
Using AI to tackle homelessness
Robotics competitions gave Han a chance to push AI technology forward, with his latest project focusing on a problem outside of the competitive arena.
Now, Han is developing a website and mobile app with AI. The program is expected to make it easier for people experiencing homelessness when it comes to finding food, shelter, water, washrooms and other support services.
He said the idea came to him while watching the FIFA World Cup in Toronto.
“During the FIFA World Cup, I watched the finals around City Hall,” he said. “There [were] a lot of people who [were] celebrating this large event. However, just beside [on] another street, there [were] a lot of people who [were] lying on the street.”
Han said this stark contrast gave him the drive to use his skills.
“I [needed] to do something and use my knowledge to help them,” he said.
While the platform is still in development, Han said he hopes to have a first draft ready at some point in October.
Han said that with the application, he wants users to be able to ask questions or speak to the platform directly, in order to receive information tailored to their individual circumstances.
“For example, when you go to the City of Toronto’s government website, there [are] qualifications if you want use their shelters,” he said. “So by using the AI technologies involved [in my application], it could give you the advice on where you could go.”
Han confirmed that the backend of the platform is mostly completed, and that he is now working on the front end.
He said his goal was to try and make it as simple as possible for those at-risk.
Additionally, Han said he wants to create a separate section on the program for anyone who would want to provide information about available services.
Toronto is set to act as the application and website’s test city, but Han said he plans to eventually expand across Canada.
He also said he is hoping to one day work with others on the project.
For Han, the project has also changed the way he thinks about AI.
“Now AI is like a tool; everyone is using it,” he said.
Han said that he now sees opportunities to use AI for problems outside of robotics.
“I think AI could do some real things instead of just robotics,” he said.
Han said he isn’t viewing the homelessness platform as a short-term project.
“I will finish developing and maintenance for three or five years or more,” he said.
His mother, Jinyu Liu, said in a news release that Han has always had the instinct to identify problems and try to help.
“He notices a need and then tries to use whatever ability he has to respond to it,” she wrote.
According to his mom, that instinct has shown up in different ways throughout Han’s childhood, including visits to seniors’ homes and giving food to people experiencing homelessness.
Now, he wants to apply those skills to a much larger challenge – and it’s also a passion he hopes other teenagers will pick up.
“I also want the youths [to] try to solve real-world problems by using their knowledge,” Nathan said. “I think everyone could contribute to the challenges by using their own intelligence and their own skills to help make this world better.”
After October, Han expects to return to robotics, but hopes the homelessness platform will be far enough along that it will mainly require maintenance.
Han added that after high school, he is interested in pursuing robotics and artificial intelligence in post-secondary, although he has not yet decided which schools he wants to attend.
