QIU JUN, 17, will represent Shenzhen to compete in a national youth science and technology innovation contest this August with his self-designed automatic model helicopter.

A Senior Two student at Shenzhen Senior High School, Qiu recently won an award at the 22nd youth innovation contest in the city.

"I've been fascinated by model planes ever since I was a child. Then I had an idea that it would be great if the model could fly away and back on its own, controlled by a signal," he said.

He began his experiments in August last year. Qiu renovated a robot manufactured by a Guangzhou company to make his remote control.

His model copter was finally ready for takeoff after more than 30 experiments to solve numerous small problems.

"There's still room for improvement, including making it smaller," he said, as the remote control weighs 1.8 kilograms.

Qiu tried hard to find a balance between his invention and his school studies.

"I gave up my rest and recreation for it. Almost every weekend I flew the model plane in Longhua, Bao'an District. When something went wrong and it couldn't fly, I had to take it home and try again."

Transporting it alone was no easy job. The copter is 1.5 meters long and 1.7 meters wide.

"Luckily I've got supportive parents," Qiu said.

"I have learnt a lot from the project. It has taught me about robot technologies and simple software design. I had to get help from teachers and friends during the process, which taught me how to get along with other people as well."

Editor: Wing