–after valiant fight at inaugural World Robotic Olympics

THE team of local teenagers aged 15-19 that represented Guyana in Washington DC at the first Global Robotic Olympics as ‘STEM Guyana’ ended the competition in 10th place after six rounds.

Despite being in first place at the end of Day One, STEM Guyana thereafter struggled to maintain its position on the second and final days despite the teenagers’ valiant efforts.
At the end of the competition, the local team managed to finish in 10th position overall.
The youngsters faced challenges after being paired with underperforming teams and robots, and failed to win any of the three rounds on Tuesday. In the sixth and final round in which STEM Guyana competed, it found itself in an alliance with Nicaragua and Palestine.
And, strive as it might to rake in as many points as it could to help the alliance go head-to-head with Germany, in the end, they lost this round as well.

Nevertheless, the team members fought valiantly in the final three rounds of the ‘H2O Flow’ game, and scored many points for its alliances. Moreover, on realising that the robot of one of its alliance members was not up to par, STEM Guyana built its distinctive ‘koker design’ onto that robot.
The team comprised Ryan Benschop, Anthony Frank, Arianna Mahase, Christopher Nelson, Sahief Poese and Vevekeanand Ramnarace, alongside Team Manager Farnaz Baksh; Coach Ricky Chan; and Public Relations Officer Horace Mosley.

This team had worked together during the past few months to build their robot, ‘Megathurium’ to compete in this competition.
The robot was required to ‘battle’ against opponents in the competition’s simulation exercise, called ‘H2O Flow’.
‘Megathurium’ was placed in an alliance with the robots of two other teams, and was required to pick up balls on the playing field which represented water and deposit them in reserves or at the laboratory.

After depositing the ‘water’, the robots would have to attach and elevate themselves onto metal bars at the sides of the arena to escape from the oncoming ‘flood.’
Pioneer of STEM Guyana and overseas-based Guyanese, Karen Abrams, expressed her elation at the team’s success via social media.
Support for the team came rushing through on social media also as the young team sought to represent Guyana on the platform.

Out of the 809 youths competing from 157 countries through more than 160 teams, the Guyanese competed after being exposed to robotics in Guyana for only about one year.
President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, speaking at the closing ceremony, charged the youths from around the world to develop their skills in this regard to remedy the global ailments we face daily.
The next global challenge will be held in Mexico City next summer, and STEM Guyana will be seeking to attend once more and excel once again.