Belize High School Robotics Students Return Home with Gold

Returning home today, after capturing gold at the Annual Global Challenge in Switzerland, was a group of students from the Belize High School in Belize City. Their achievement was the building of a robot so sophisticated that it captured the judges’ hearts in the contest which bore the theme “Ocean Opportunities.” This was Belize’s second participation in the competition and when they stepped off the plane today, News Five’s Marion Ali was among the reporters and well wishers who had gathered to welcome them home.

Marion Ali, Reporting

The entrance to the arrival lounge at the Philip Goldson International Airport was lined with proud classmates of the five students who stunned their counterparts in other regions of the world and impressed the panel of judges who awarded them gold in the Annual Global Challenge in Switzerland. It is the first time that anyone from Belize has made this accomplishment. For Benny He and Tristian Bradley, there were a few highs and lows during the actual competition, but the journey to first place was a lifetime experience.

Benny He

Benny He, Robotics Gold Medalist

“We walked with pride and passion. We actually had the largest out of all the countries.”

Tristian Bradley, Robotics Gold Medalist

“There were some ups and downs during those matches. We won some, we lost some, but we never gave up.”

Bradley said that the competition among the teams, over one hundred and eighty challengers, was so tight that they thought at one point that they weren’t going to advance to the finals. But perseverance paid off. He explained what the competition was about.

Tristian Bradley

Tristian Bradley

“The goal of the competition was to collect balls that represent carbon in the atmosphere and store in a central sink. We designed our robot to collect as much as possible to store in a compressor on the side where a human player would then manually store the carbon in the centre sink.”

It took a lot of sacrifice and hard work by the students, who sacrificed all their summer holidays and weekends building their robot. Among them were also Justin Zhou, Jaden Chen and Melysa Choi.

Justin Zhou

Justin Zhou, Robotics Gold Medalist

“Continuing on this path is probably because robotics technology, that’s what I want.”

Jaden Chen

Jaden Chen, Robotics Gold Medalist

“We’re excited, nervous, anxious, but once the match started, everything disappeared – the lights, the crowd, the commentary.”

Melysa Choi

Melysa Choi, Robotics Gold Medalist

“When we looked at the other robots that were in the practice field, we were like “Oh no, can our robot even make it up the stage.” But regardless we tried very hard.”

The competition enters another level next year, and their principal, Jamie Usher told the media that they’ll be ready for it.

Jamie Usher

Jamie Usher, Principal, Belize High School

“We have the first league coming up so I really hope to see this energy continue.  We already have plans to ramp up ourselves so we are looking for help to get two bigger robots at the hundred and twenty-five pound-level.   Because we want them to know that we’re not afraid of remaining competitive and we’re not afraid to level up.”

Marion Ali for News Five.