SINGAPORE – Buzzing drones equipped with cameras and sensors fly adeptly through a series of obstacles.

Next, the drones detect the colours of three balls on a table – red, blue and yellow – and use their propellers to blow each ball into a matching tube.

Finally, the drones land on a target spot marked by logos on a stair-like platform.

These are not remote controlled devices but artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled drones able to navigate an obstacle course autonomously.

Over six weeks of training, more than 320 students from 67 secondary schools programmed these drones to compete in the National Youth Tech Championship 2025. This is the highest level of participation since the event debuted in 2023.

The championship, organised by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Google Cloud in partnership with the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), is one of the largest AI drone competitions for youth here.

Back for a third season, it serves as the premier contest for Infocomm Media Club students. The final took place at SIT’s Punggol campus on July 18, involving 55 finalists from 12 teams.

The first half of the competition consisted of an obstacle course where teams scored points for each obstacle that their flying drones cleared successfully.

The second half, dubbed The Battleground, took place in a ground arena. Land rover robots had to collect cube-shaped tokens and bring them to a team’s home ground. Teams earned points for each token retrieved.

Based on their total score, the top two teams, Ngee Ann Secondary School and Dunman Secondary School, advanced to the Grand Final – where additional points were awarded in The Battleground for stealing the opponent’s tokens.

After a tense showdown, the four-member team from Ngee Ann Secondary triumphed.

Lee Jia Qi, 17, a member of the victorious side, said: “It was k...