BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Oct. 24, 2019– During August, a small group of students at Belize High School began dedicating their afterschool times to a special project: They were building a robot that they have entered in an international competition to represent Belize. The group left Belize last week for Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, where they will be competing in the Annual Global Challenge which got underway on Sunday, October 20.
Belize High School students built their robot for the competition, which is being held under this year under the theme, “Ocean Opportunities.”
This is only the second year that Belize is participating in the competition, Chahatt Chawla, the spokesperson for the group told Amandala last Friday when they visited the Kremandala compound and were guests on KREM TV’s Morning Stew. Last year Belize participated in coordination with Ocean Academy.
Chawla explained that the Global Challenge is an annual completion that is in its third year.
We asked her to explain what the competition that they have entered is all about.
The robotics competition uses technology to focus on fourteen global problems; last year it was Energy Impact and this year it’s Ocean Opportunities, Chawla explained..
Chawla said they built their robot based on what it is supposed to do. “So we have a claw which is designed to pick up micro-pollutants, and we have a roller mechanism which is supposed to scoop in and pick up micro-pollutants. The robot is named Sea Empress.
Building the robot was a team effort, Chawla explained. The robot works on WIFI and it is powered by motors and it is connected to a control hub. The robot is controlled by a tablet and is connected by Bluetooth.
Jonathan Skeen was the main programmer for the robot. Skeen explained that sometimes he would program something and they would have to build it and sometimes they build something and he would have to program it.
The robot was built by the team of 5 students who are all in their senior year. Adrian Fonseca is the captain of the team.