The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) proactively fosters space technology and industry talent and promotes space science. In line with NSTC policy, NARLabs' National Space Organization (NSPO) assists local students in participating in international competitions related to space technology. In this year's Kibo-RPC (Kibo Robot Programming Challenge) finals organized by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a team from National Taiwan University named "KIBO la na tsu bu KIBO / Robology Awesome Aliensu" was awarded first place for their outstanding performance. The team had also won the preliminary round of the competition held by NSPO earlier this year.

Kibo-RPC is now in its third consecutive year. Kibo is a real module built by JAXA for the International Space Station, and the competition simulates a situation in which Kibo is hit by space debris, causing a gas leak that must be repaired by Astrobee, a piloted robot. In the regional preliminaries, the Astrobee must be programmed to fly in a simulated space capsule, reach specified places, and point a laser at targets.

For the finals, the programs are delivered to the real Astrobee and performed in the Kibo capsule on the International Space Station. Turbulence in the space capsule makes the task even more difficult. In addition to expertise in image recognition, route planning, and position control, teams must be meticulous and take into account all possible contingencies while programming the robot so that it can complete its mission. The competition is scored by the total time taken to complete the task as well as accuracy. If not completed in 5 minutes or under, or if the robot hits a separation barrier, the mission is considered a failure.

In this year's Kibo-RPC, 12 champion teams from the regional preliminaries participated in the finals, and 10 teams were able to submit their code. In addition to Taiwan, teams also represented Japan, Thailand, the United States, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Indonesia/Tunisia (international team), Vietnam, Australia, and Malaysia. The 10 teams observed the competition online, and in the end, NTU's KIBO la na tsu bu KIBO / Robology Awesome Aliensu team won first place due to their excellent accuracy and short time to complete the task successfully. Second and third place went to teams "Bondawoso3/Prime" from Indonesia and "Space Lark" from Japan, respectively.

KIBO la na tsu bu KIBO / Robology Awesome Aliensu team captain Chen Kuan-ying said during the awards speech that winning first place was unbelievable because the competition involved so many countries. Competition was also very intense, as other teams also completed the mission in a very short amount of time. Chen expressed thanks to JAXA for hosting the competition and to NSPO for their assistance.

When presenting the award to the NTU team, NSPO Director Wu Jong-shinn stated that Taiwan's students standing out among 10 countries is no small feat. NSPO will continue to cultivate talent by helping students to participate in various international competitions like Kibo-RPC and the International Water Rocket Event. In addition to giving participants the opportunity to show off what they have learned through hands-on activities and to hone their STEM skills, NSPO also encourages students to interact and compete with participants from all over the world and expand international exchange to cultivate more outstanding space talent.