Last June, a small group of 13 and 14-year-old St. Croix students joined a Project Promise program and started gathering once a week to draft plans to create a robot. Their goal was to participate in the “First Global Challenge” in Athens Greece, with 190 other teams worldwide. By the time they traveled, they were meeting twice a week or more.
Two team members, Ziva Caleb and Isolde Diaz Belle participated in the program last year, so their experience helped to build the robot this year.
The others were thankful for Caleb’s and Belle’s experience when several large boxes arrived with hundreds of screws, wheels, bolts, extrusions and tools randomly packed together. The boxes contained no instructions but teams could use as many pieces as they wanted – but only those sent by First Global, the event host and sponsor.
The goal of the project was to build a robot that would collect and deliver food (balls) into a container. University of the Virgin Islands instructor and programmer Brenda English was the team’s advisor. She helped teach the remote control to talk to the robot.
During the 10-day trip, the team participated in the opening ceremony, three days of competition and a bit of socializing with other teams. There was a robot hospital where androids were repaired and even built by a group of engineers.
The theme of the event was “Feeding the Future.” Team U.S. Virgin Islands was paired daily with two other teams to complete specific tasks, usually carrying and delivering food items to various locations. Each team received points for their participation. At the end of the event, there were three first-place, three second-place and three third-place winners, based on points awarded.
Team U.S. Virgin Islands also visited the Acropolis. But the Crucians said their favorite part of the trip was meeting with and working with people from other countries.
Caleb said she loved collaborating with others, seeing their culture, and showing others how to assemble robotic parts.
“My favorite part was the Opening Ceremony because I got to go to a concert for the first time,” Ethan Valery said of seeing and meeting The Black Eyed Peas musical group.
“My favorite part was interacting with the different teams, communicating with them and hearing their languages,” C’Niyah Smith said.
Project Promise is a non-profit organization founded by Resa O’Reilly and incorporated in 2014. The goal is to help at-risk youth. Programs include the multi-year Caterpillar program and several outdoor and after-school programs.
First Global is a U.S.-based nonprofit charity founded by Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). The organization’s mission is “to inspire leadership and innovation in youth from all nations by empowering them through education in science technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).”
