The Lichfield STEM Club was birthed from a partnership between the Department of Youth and subsequently, the Ministry of Public Telecommunications, STEMGUYANA and ExxonMobil.

This year, five youths from the Lichfield STEM Club participated in the International Youth Robotics Competition (IYRC) from August 6 to 8 in Daejeon, Korea. The International Youth Robot Competition is an annual robotics competition and is organised by the International Youth Robot Association (IYRA). The Lichfield STEM club makes up a significant part of the overall Guyanese Team. The objective of this competition is Robot Creation. It is aimed to provide a platform for students to share their creativity, innovative thoughts and programming skills. This year’s competition was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the team competed against 71 other countries and they are one of the STEMGuyana junior teams to win a bronze medal for their robotic creation. This year’s team includes five committed robotics enthusiasts; Zaki Ishmael, Jayden Robin, Lenisha McAlmont, Daniel Lewis, and Joshua Doris. Bradley Downer and Denica Grant coached the team.

This year’s theme is “Robot, be my friend” and the Lichfield’s team built a robot by the name of “Golden Retriever”. It is described as a stationary toy that a child can play with. It was also programmed to play with paper balls. This team from Berbice wanted to showcase what a robotic friend can mean for the future of Guyana. They incorporated their youthfulness into their design.

The Lichfield STEM club or “Team Dominators”, as they were known in the National team structure, was required to work together as a team to design a robot based on the given theme. The team was also only allowed to use My Robot Time (MRT) kits to build their robot. They also successfully presented and demonstrated their robot creation because they convinced and impressed the judges. The team wanted to represent their county and country with pride and resilience. They would like to pave a way using their platform for other young Berbicians to follow in the world of STEM and Robotics.

The Pepperpot Magazine asked Jayden Robin what being a part of STEMGuyana means to him. He responded by saying “It means the world to me. It allows me to explore the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics. In the future, I aspire to become an Engineer and STEMGuyana’s robotics sessions are pointing me in that direction. STEMGuyana also taught me how to utilise technology to solve problems”.

Zaki Ishmael is also another member of the Litchfield team. He shared that, “For the past two years, I’ve been participating in the International Youth Robotics Competition (IYRC). Being a member of the Lichfield team means a lot to me because I get the opportunity to learn about robotics and coding. At STEMGuyana, we get to learn skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, learning the importance of teamwork and public speaking.” The Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) is currently sponsoring the teams, including the Lichfield team. One of the team’s coaches, Bradley Downer stressed that last year the team participated but did not gain a medal. That did not deter them. They learned from their mistakes and emerged stronger than ever this year. Team Guyana 2021 currently holds ninth place out of 175 teams.