SIX students and one teacher of the School of the Nations were trained in the field of robotics during a seven-day programme which was held in Ontario, Canada.
According to a press statement from the institution, the programme, which started on February 9, was made possible through an ongoing partnership between Nations and the London International Academy (LIA).

The main aim of the training was to use students to drive the robotics programme at School of the ‘Nations’ and to give them exposure to the limitless applications in all careers.

The training involved programming and building robots, but emphasis were also placed on designing robotic parts using FreeCAD and printing those parts using 3D printers.
“Nations students were tasked with the challenge of assembling a 3D printer; they also used the Python programme to write codes. ‘Nations’ students had the opportunity to work along and share ideas with students at LIA,” said the institution.

After two days of training, the students were taken to the University of Western Ontario for a visit and to present their work to students of the university.

“The students at the university were impressed by what the team achieved in just two days. ‘Nations’ students were exposed to approximately 10 hours of training per day and did not show any sign of exhaustion; they now plan to return,” the release said.

In addition to their practical work, students were privileged to have a video conference with Dr. Marcin Jakubowski, who is the founder of Open Source Ecology (OSE, www.opensourceecology.org), an open collaboration of engineers, producers and builders developing the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS).

He planted 100 trees in a day, made 500 blocks in a day and built a tractor in six days.
Dr. Jakubowski was amazed by the students’ designs of a motor and wants to put it on an open source site and upload videos of their work on YouTube, Facebook, Wiki and other sites so that it can be available to everyone.

The team will continue to collaborate with students from LIA on projects and share information and designs on an open source called Gitlab.
Last year, 11 students were trained in robotics and two students, Ryan Benschop (team captain) and Othniel Lewis, were selected to represent Guyana in the first Global Robotics Tournament. This year, LIA is planning to bring a team to ‘Nations’ to collaborate on various projects.