Team Belize Wins Silver at FIRST Global Challenge 2023
Today, Team Belize returned from Singapore as silver medallists, second only to China, after competing in the FIRST Global Challenge 2023. Team Belize was selected from over one hundred and ninety participating countries to win the Zheng Heng Award in Engineering Design Excellence. The award is given to teams whose robot exhibits excellent engineering and displays elegance and effectiveness during the challenge. This award looks to recognize the most effective overall robot designs. A News Five crew was at the P.G.I.A. and Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Belize High School students and parents were outside the arrival lounge of the Philip Goldson International Airport with signs and flowers to welcome Team Belize on their return from Singapore. That was the location for the 2023 FIRST Global Challenge where Belize’s robotics team won silver. They were the defending champs and did excellent in the competition.
Karii Domingo
Karii Domingo, Team Belize
“Reaching there, you are in a building with a hundred and ninety-one other countries and they all have different robots, but we all get the same kit. So it’s about seeing the ingenuity and creativity between each robot and that was really inspiring to all of us because we got to see the thought process behind every other country to complete the challenge. But luckily our design was able to land us silver in the engineering design process.”
Sebastian Garcia
Sebastian Garcia, Team Belize
“Last year Team Belize was a part of the winning alliance that won gold in Geneva, Switzerland. This year, team Belize won the Zheng Heng Engineering Design Award. We came in second place to China and that is a very impressive feat.”
Uday Tilwani
Uday Tilwani, Team Belize
“As the driver of the team I got to communicate with so many other teams to strategize and divide up the game in different parts so we can all work towards one task.”
Evie Li
Evie Li, Team Belize
“My experience in this year’s competition was to complete the social media challenge that FIRST had sent to us. During the challenge I coordinate with different many countries; had a meeting with them and we do learn a lot of things from them. For example the culture, the countries’ background and the language they spoke; robot technique and also we introduced Belize to them.”
The judges looked at how teams brought Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics together into a single robot that performed its designed functions. The robot was to overcome problems presented in the competition and display high functionality and practicality. Team Belize’s robot competed effectively and withstood the rigors of the competition. IT Director at the Belize High School, Godfrey Sosa says that the win is huge.
Godfrey Sosa
Godfrey Sosa, I.T. Director, Belize High School
“It says a lot for our country, it says a lot for the ingenuity of our people and I am very proud of these students, all seventeen students who are part of the robotics team. Unfortunately, we only had five who could represent the team, but it’s a big win to them and also a big win for the country of Belize. Coming second to China that sends a huge message of the ingenuity of our people, the creativity of our people. Actually being able to present a robot that awed, that wowed the judges to the point of actually earning a medal and earning a win in this particular and I would say a very prestigious category because the engineering award does says a lot about your ability to be able to present a robot that functions efficiently, that had something on it that they’ve never seen and they were impressed with.”
Also greeting the team today at the P.G.I.A. were Ministers of Sports Rodwell Ferguson and Gilroy Usher Senior. Just before the team departed to Singapore, Belize was the first country in the world to declare robotics a sport.
Rodwell Ferguson
Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Sports
“It’s a very significant milestone today and when we declared robotics a sport, many said why robotics. What will you declare them as? I go back to dominoes. Dominoes is not a sport in reality, but it uses the mind and so robotics also uses the mind so we as a Ministry of Sports have agreed to make it become a sport in Belize. So we are the first country in the world, I believe, that made robotics a sports. But I am very happy at the accomplishment; their achievement. We have committed that this will now spread countrywide, so eventually we will have robotics teams across the country of Belize. So I am very happy, I am very elated it is going to happen.”
IT Director Sosa says that preparations begin almost immediately for the next robotics competition, scheduled for March of 2024.
Godfrey Sosa
“We have a next robotics competition in March leading up into April at the world championships. If we did this, we are looking to that again.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
