Elementary school in Taiwan’s Kaohsiung holds robotic graduation

台灣高雄小學舉行機器人畢業典禮

Each student represented by their own robot at ceremony

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As schools across Taiwan have been forced to hold remote graduation ceremonies due to the pandemic, an elementary school in Taiwan’s Kaohsiung decided to turn each student into a robot for the special occasion, CNA reported.

In order to carry out the surreal ceremony, the Tsauogung Elementary School in Kaohsiung’s Fengshan District used seven Kebbi robots of its own and had to borrow over 20 from other schools.

To make the robotic graduation a reality, the school’s computer science teachers had to handle a lot of technical problems, according to the report. During the event on Monday (June 7), the teachers first helped each student log in to their Microsoft Teams account and then directed each Kebbi robot to receive its diploma and awards.

After that, it came time for each graduating student to address the other assembled robots, which was followed by a chorus.

Graduating student Cheng Hsin-chiao (鄭心喬), with her musician mother Wang Li-yan (王立言) playing the guitar, sang a song they composed together for the occasion.

School principal Liu Chih-hui (劉熾慧) said this year’s graduation combined culture, technology, and creativity in an effort to make up for the cancellation of the in-person ceremony. Hopefully, the special graduation has enriched the students’ imaginations and lit up their futures, she added.