Lead mentor for the Dominica robotics team, Kodie Jean-Jacques, got the Outstanding Mentor Award along with nine other outstanding mentors from around the world in the FIRST Global “Robotics Olympics” Challenge in Singapore. The FIRST Global Challenge is an annual Olympics-style robotics competition that allows pre-university students from around the world to engineer competition-style robots. At the event, a team of Dominican students from the Dominica Grammar School, and the Dominica State College competed with robotics teams from over 190 nations.
He was selected from a pool of hundreds of other international mentors and coaches. Jean-Jacques was granted the award not only for the work he has done with the 2023 robotics team; but with previous cohorts as well.
He stated in a press release that he is humbled to be the recipient of the prestigious award, and he has been working with the Dominica robotics team since 2018.
Meantime, the Dominica robotics team entered the competition with a robot named “Fiona” that was capable of performing several tasks such as driving, climbing, collecting objects from a playing field, and distributing said objects. The robot was designed, built, programmed, and tested not only by members of the travelling delegation, but also by other members of the robotics team who attend St. Martin Secondary, Convent High School, and Goodwill Secondary School.
Dominica ranked 4th in the OECS and in the 64th percentile of all countries. The competition was a true test of the student’s technical and soft skills.
According to a press release, team member Phoenix Jacques noted that while the team’s results were not as good as anticipated, the team’s performance was extremely commendable. He went on to say that the team’s resilience and commitment to excellence were reflected when the robot got a mechanical fault mid-event, and they worked assiduously to repair it in a few hours.
Team member Robert Guiste Jr. added that the team definitely left a lasting impression on judges, and fellow participants alike. He further noted that the team’s passion for innovation and problem-solving allowed them to rank higher in the event this year than in previous years, and the goal is to keep climbing the ranks.
The team extends sincere gratitude to its sponsors and partners for coming together to make the entire venture possible.
Good Job but what did the robot do nuh we cannot see it in action den,,,
Well done youngsters and congratulations!! With hard work and dedication no task is insurmountable.
Respectfully submitted.
A lovely news item. Congratulations to all! You surely have made us proud.
This is such wonderful news. So gratifying, so encouraging, so uplifting and so full of hope for our Youth and Dominica.
Congrats to the the entire team (travelling & non-travelling), their coaches, mentors, School teachers (especially STEAM teachers).
Robotics and design engineering require a creative mind so keep teaching Art in varied forms in schools. The more creative, the more innovative and greater the aptitude for creating
I concur, wonderful achievement for these bright and promising youth.
Let’s hope this can inspire much needed investment in development.
Wonderful news indeed. Mr Cadette, I think we need to have a convo to see how we can further push STEAM (more specifically AI and Robotics) in our schools.
All of the participants named should have been mentioned.
ADMIN: The participants names were listed in our previous article on this competition:
“Though there will only be five student team members traveling to Singapore namely: Adriano Toussaint, Bernisha Moreau, Noah Riviere, Phoenix Jacques, and Robert Guiste Jr., the team consists of 12 other young innovators (Adelisha Massicotte, Angel Eustache, Dianka George, Annik Francis, Destinee Bertrand, Sherkhia Andrew, Milagro Deluge, Gambino Orlé, Sanjay Sookhoo, Johnpaul Itodo, Célina Pinard, and Sky Casimir).”
https://dominicanewsonline.com/news/homepage/news/dominican-students-prepare-to-take-part-in-the-2023-first-global-robotics-olympics-challenge-in-singapore/