From August 13 to 18, the RoboCup Malaysia Open 2025 - Robotics Competition & Exhibition was held in Malaysia. Two medical-engineering interdisciplinary teams from NKU, composed of students majoring in Intelligent Medicine, Automation, and related disciplines won three championship titles, achieving a historic breakthrough.

RoboCup is the most influential, technologically advanced, and widely participated professional robotics competition globally, attracting teams from dozens of countries and regions each year. This year's Malaysia Open brought together over 400 participants and staff from countries and regions including China, Malaysia, Japan, the United States, Iran, Macau SAR (China), and Thailand, making it a top-tier international event in robotics technology.

The two teams from NKU include Team ISILAB (faculty mentor: Jia Hao, Associate Professor from the School of Medicine; team members: Da Yang, Shi Shujun, Ma Jingyu, etc.) and Team KameRider-BIR (faculty mentor: Li Wenyu, Associate Professor from the College of Artificial Intelligence; team members: Li Leyang, Sun Jialiang, Wang Yong, etc.). After multiple rounds of intense competition, Team ISILAB won the championships of the Technical Challenge Competition and the Open Challenge, while Team KameRider-BIR secured the championship of Human-Robot Interaction Challenge.

The Technical Challenge Competition primarily assesses the programming and control capabilities of robots. Teams are required to deploy robots using ROS, enabling the pre-configured robots to complete multiple tasks set by the competition organizers. Each task is scored out of 100 points, with six tasks in total, and the final ranking is determined by the cumulative score. The Human-Robot Interaction Challenge focuses on the precision of collaboration and interaction between robots and humans. Participants wear VR equipment and complete designated tasks in an unfamiliar virtual environment with the assistance and guidance of robots. There are eight tasks in total, with scoring based on completion speed. The Open Challenge encourages teams to present cutting-edge concepts and application scenarios of human-robot collaboration by leveraging their creativity, envisioning a future where humans and robots coexist and thrive together.

These victories mark three historic firsts for NKU: It is the first time in nearly three years that NKU has claimed a championship title in Southeast Asia, further enhancing its influence in the region; It is the first time that mainland Chinese students have won a robotics competition championship in Malaysia, showcasing the technical strength of Chinese universities on the global stage; and, it is the first time that NKU has received the RoboCup Technical Award and Human-Robot Interaction Award, reflecting its achievements in robotics system teaching and research.

Notably, Jia Hao, the faculty mentor of Team ISILAB, had previously participated as a competitor in the 2017 RoboCup during his master's studies at NKU, where he achieved the excellent result of winning the Open Challenge championship. Taking up the baton from Duan Feng, Vice Dean of the School of Medicine and Professor at the College of Artificial Intelligence, he participated as a faculty mentor this time to lead his team to new breakthroughs, demonstrating the Nankai team's commitment to building upon past successes and achieving new breakthroughs.