Jamaica College robotics team shines on international stage

With limited resources and being the only Caribbean country among a number of other nations, members of the Jamaica College robotics team performed exceptionally well at the United States First Robotics Competition, held in New York in February

The JC boys walked away with a number of sectional prizes, including the Inspire Award and the Motivator Award, among others.

Dimario Campbell, president and captain of the team, said despite the many sacrifices, they were overjoyed at for the opportunity to represent the Caribbean.

"It wasn't really much of a surprise because we put in a lot of work. None of this would be possible without our coaches' help, sponsors and the whole team working together. It is a really good feeling and we are proud that we have not only represented Jamaica College but Jamaica and the Caribbean," he told The Gleaner.

"As high-school students, we had to manage both schoolwork and robotics. It was very challenging, but the team made it work. Sometimes we are here from as early as 6:30 in the morning and the first place we head to is the robotics lab to get work done. We leave sometimes at 10/11 o'clock in the night, so it was a lot of sleepless nights."

Only Caribbean school

Principal of JC, Wayne Robinson, expressed gratitude for the fact that despite some resource constraints, the team persisted and made Jamaica proud.

"It's a competition which gives opportunities for students, usually for high school. We were the only Caribbean school there competing with other areas of the world. We won a number of awards for our performances. As a matter of fact, we had to merge the two teams into one, because even though both teams moved on to the second round, we couldn't afford to carry both teams to the next round because we didn't have the resources to fix one of the robots," said Robinson.

He said he is hoping that they will be able to qualify for the World Championships in a month's time.