_{Photo: Bridget Pineda, a third-form student at Nazarene High School}

Nazarene High School in Belize City and Muffles College in Orange Walk Town won medals in the Caribbean STEM Olympiads (CSO).

by Charles Gladden

BELIZE CITY, Mon. Jan. 20, 2025

A third-form student from Nazarene High School in Belize City has topped the 2025 CSO-Robotics & Electronics Olympiad held on 13 – 19 January in Barbados.

The competition is an event hosted annually in January by the Caribbean STEM Olympiads (CSO) and is designed to test the competitors’ creativity, logical and analytical thinking, problem-solving, leadership, and teamwork abilities, along with math, coding, robotics, and electronics skills.

This year’s event featured three categories: CSF Math Olympiad; CSF Computer Coding Olympiad – aimed at solving a challenge faced by Caribbean communities; and CSF Robotics & Electronics Systems Olympiad – where projects must be hardware dominant.

_{“Cricket” a contraption designed for fire safety}

Bridget Pineda, a third-form Academic major at Nazarene High School, secured victory in the competition by locking the Gold medal for her creation, “Cricket”, a contraption designed for fire safety, that can detect gas, smoke, flames, and sparks, making it a groundbreaking addition to fire prevention technology.

“The competition was to find problems and a solution to these problems in the Caribbean, so we want to help people with technology because this is the future. This device already exists, and was created for poor families in Belize. The device already exists, but it’s something poor families can’t afford, so we want to make something affordable and useful,” said Pineda.

According to Pineda, she has been working on “Cricket” and other projects since the beginning of the school year. She added that one of the biggest challenges for “Cricket” was the finances, but she took apart materials from an old printer.

“For Bridget Pineda to place first in this Caribbean Science Foundation competition, highlights growth in potential in robotics and STEM. Her achievements reflect Belizean youth’s talents and creativity in showcasing their ability and possibility to excel in these regional challenges. It emphasizes the importance of STEM education to nurture further investors and leaders,” Dr. Abraham Flowers, mentor for the Robotics club at Nazarene High School said.

Pineda solely represented Nazarene High School under “NazTech” by defeating St. Lucia’s Light Creator team.

“Honestly, it was amazing and expected because we worked hard. We’ve been working after school, on the weekends [and] holidays for this,” she said.

_{Gold Medalists: Belize Muffles College, OW, Belize}

While Pineda secured Gold in Level III of CSF Robotics, a group of four fourth-form students, consisting of Kian Carrillo, Carlos Blanco, Jair Urbina, and Mia Yam from Muffles College in Orange Walk Town, also secured Gold in a similar competition at Level II. Also, a trio of students – Mannat Lalwani, Zyanie Urbina, and Mikael Cervantes – from Muffles College secured Bronze in the same competition at the CSF Computer Coding Olympiad.

_{Muffles College Bonze medal team}

Each winner was gifted medals, tech kits, and a cash prize.