JC’s Blue Bots top robotics contest in thrilling affair
Published:Monday | February 27, 2023 | 1:02 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
The ‘Blue Bots’ robotics team from Jamaica College (JC) has been crowned the 2023 champions of the annual NCB Foundation FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Jamaica National Robotics Championship.
The students from the St Andrew-based school topped the two-day event, which was hosted at JC’s Karl Hendrickson Auditorium on Friday and Saturday. This year’s staging featured a record-breaking participation of 29 teams, including York Castle High, the 2022 champions of students between the age of 13 to 18 years old.
The students’ use of robotics, programming, research, and critical thinking to develop solutions for everyday challenges were evaluated. Their robots were then put to the test on an obstacle course.
The Blue Bots will go on to compete in the FTC World Championships, which will take place from April 19 to 22 in Houston, Texas.
The female team from Immaculate Conception High School, which placed second, will be joining JC’s all-male squad as representatives from Jamaica in that tournament.
“We’re ecstatic; we can’t believe it,” team member Michael Woods told The Gleaner as the team chorused how surprised they were by the win and the opportunity to showcase their skills internationally.
According to Nathan Guy, another member of the team, the boys had put a lot of time and attention into their work to secure the victory.
“Many, many hours without sleep,” he informed The Gleaner, while another colleague chimed in, stating that the group spent a lot of time in the school lab to ensure their robot was well-assembled.
While some team members have had the chance to travel abroad to participate in the FTC World Championships before, it is the first time travelling abroad for the purpose of engaging in robotics for the majority of the members.
“We are definitely expecting a tough challenge. We know Worlds is a completely different thing, but we are up to it,” said Woods, adding that the team will be doing its best.
Meanwhile, Joel Henry, who has participated in one of these competitions before, asserted that he knew his team would have won the competition on the weekend based on his prior experience.
Nadeen Matthews Blair, CEO of the NCB Foundation, told The Gleaner that the teams spent one term perfecting their robots in order to participate in the competition.
The JC Old Boys’ Association of New York was instrumental in the tournament’s conception in 2019. Since then, it has received assistance from the NCB Foundation, which donated $8 million towards this year’s staging.
“It is well aligned with our mission of expanding the number of digital producers we have in Jamaica,” Matthews Blair said, while also commending the youngsters’ ability to construct robots from raw materials.
FIRST Tech Challenge Jamaica is a global non-profit organisation that promotes science and technology by giving young people access to a programme that requires them to apply engineering principles in a competitive environment using robotics.
The national competition also included, for the first time, a regional competitor – the Carol Morgan School (CMS) from the Dominican Republic, who went by the moniker ‘CMS Sharks’.
Speaking with The Gleaner on Saturday, the team members said they were very pleased to be given the opportunity to participate.
“The competition has been a lot of fun. It’s been very fun to see what everybody else has created and to interact with everyone and everyone’s robot,” said Phoenix Handal.
Suh Yeon Kim stated that the team was very welcomed by the Jamaicans and that they were “shocked at how kind everybody was and [how] friendly everybody acts towards us”.
Eithan Rodriguez particularly enjoyed the various stages of the competition, which allowed students to return to their workstations and to continuously work on the programming of their robot for the other rounds of the matches.
He also described his trip to Jamaica as “very challenging but fun”, comparing the experience to that of climbing a mountain.
“We had to climb it, but when we are at the top; it’s wonderful,” he said.
Coach Alexander Skomorokhov said that he has been to numerous international competitions in locations like Romania; The Netherlands; and St Louis, Missouri, in the United States. He described the championship held in Jamaica as “amazing”, with first-rate facilities and great execution.
Several prizes were presented to the participating teams. Among them were the NCB Foundation Spirit Award, won by the York Castle High School ‘Drones’ robotics team; the Innovate Award, given to the ‘Hurricanes’ of the American International School of Kingston; the Control Award, copped by ‘Team Drift’ of the CMS; and the Motivate Award, secured by Munro College.
‘The Griffins’ from JC, Calabar High School’s team, and ‘The Lions’ from St Jago High School received the Robot Performance Awards.
JC coach Paul Pounall won the Chairman’s Award.