FIRST Global Challenge 2021 Robotics Challenge |04 September 2021

The handover of the Robotic kit to Team Seychelles (Photo: Thomas Meriton)

Team Seychelles receives Robotic kit for fourth and final task

Members of Team Seychelles taking part in this year’s First Global Challenge yesterday received their Robotic kit which will be used in building their last task of this year’s challenge being held under the theme ‘Discover and Recover’ – a theme closely linked to the ongoing global health challenges posed by the Covid- 19.

Team Seychelles which is made up of Tahani Malbrook from Anse Boileau school, Rebecca Talma from Beau Vallon school, Yannick Hollanda, Mikhail Rudchenko, Ronan Varsani and Sakthi Guhan Alexander from the International School Seychelles (ISS), Wayne Lesperance from the Independent School, Genario Banane from Perseverance school, and Chris Lucas from Anse Royale school, were presented with the kit by head of the division of Science, Technology and Innovation within the Ministry of Investment, Entrepreneurship and Industry, Xavier Estico, during a ceremony held at the Standard House at Providence.

The FIRST Global Challenge is to inspire leadership and innovation in youth from all nations by empowering them through education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, also known as STEM.

By nurturing cross-cultural communication and cooperation among high-school students around the world through STEM, we empower them to collectively tackle the world’s most pressing challenges and come up with solutions that improve quality of life for all.

For this year’ challenge, teams had reinforced their robot design, build, and program skills using a provided REV Robotics kit of parts to complete four individual build tasks, representing different components of a FIRST Global robot.

For the last task, teams will build a drivetrain which will be used to propel the robot around and with the kit, they will have to build a powered chassis to navigate a given path.

The full length of the course should be 400cm, and the length 160cm, with three scoring locations on it.

Mr Estico said he is confident that Team Seychelles will complete the task on time since all members are motivated and determined to push the country higher in the ranking.

He thanked all the major partners, including the National Information Sharing and Coordination Centre (NISCC), the Seychelles Meteorological Authority and the Seychelles Coast Guard.

Roland Duval