DADLIBOTS – ANNOUNCES THE 2024 FGC GREECE ROBOTICS TEAM

DadliBots is set to raise the national flag of Antigua and Barbuda boldly in the birthplace of competitive sports, when 190+ countries unite in Athens, Greece from 26 – 29 September for the 2024 FIRST Global Challenge (FGC); where robotics and athletics will merge under the theme: “Feeding the Future”.

The FIRST Global Challenge is an olympics-style, international robotics competition that takes place annually; where nations are invited to send a team to build and program a robot to compete. Teams work together to complete tasks in a game themed around one of the greatest challenges facing our planet, including the 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering, in an effort to foster understanding and cooperation among the youth of the world as they use their abilities to solve the world’s problems.

FIRST Global strives to convince the various governments and organizations of the world to embrace STEM education, and to support it by investing in their young adults that will soon begin to make their marks in the world. FIRST Global believes that by making science and technology as exciting as any other sport, we can inspire the world’s two billion youth to pursue STEM fields and be the leaders who collectively solve our planet’s most pressing problems.

Sustainable food production is one of the defining challenges of the 21st century. This year’s FGC theme challenges FIRST Global teams of students from around the world to learn about and address the obstacles and opportunities to provide the global population with equitable, safe, nutritious, and environmentally responsible food.

DadliBots is the national robotics team that began competing in the FIRST Global Challenge since 2018. Every year it continues to inspire many students across Antigua and Barbuda to consider becoming engineers; so they can play their part in helping to build a brighter future.

The competition team for 2024 even came together thanks to the (B)oosting (R)enewables and (I)nfrastructure (G)lobally by (H)arnessing (T)echnology – (BRIGHT) Hack Challenge – an ongoing school STEM hackathon organized by team mentor Mr. Elijah James and partners such as The LocaL App that is geared at helping young minds explore creative ideas on how robotics, along with other technologies can be used to solve problems in our community.

DadliBots spent the summer preparing for competition by actively promoting “Robotics as a Sport” and the FGC theme “Feeding the Future” amongst hundreds of our peers in STEM Camps such as “TechByte” at American Corner Antigua and “STEM InFuSed” with the Ministry of Education.

Students that are interested in STEM education that is provided for FREE by DadliBots can register at – www.antiguabarbudarobotics.org or follow via social media channels: @dadlibots

DADLIBOTS – ANNOUNCES THE 2024 FGC GREECE ROBOTICS TEAM

Individuals, Businesses and Organizations that are interested in supporting the work of DadliBots and its efforts in developing the potential of youth across Antigua and Barbuda can assist the national team that is currently in the process of fundraising to cover the costs for hosting workshops and participating in the annual competition including student uniforms, team registration, accommodation and travel.

Donations can be made online here – https://first.global/2024-nations/antigua-and-barbuda-2024/
or otherwise via email to: [email protected] 

To learn more about the 2024 FIRST Global Challenge
Website: www.first.global
Social media channel: @F1RSTglobal
HashTags: #FGC2024Athens, #FGC2024, #FGC2024Greece

Meet the FGC 2024 National Team Members:

Brielle (Driver): is 15 years old and attends the Antigua Girls High School. As an aspiring Aerospace Engineer, she is a creative at heart, who has always been intrigued with disassembling and repurposing her toys to make them more flexible. She believes that technological innovation in agriculture is critical to enhancing crop production yields and reducing negative environmental effects.

Lemario (Leader): is 17 years old and attends the Antigua Seventh-Day Adventist Secondary School. He has a deep passion for accounting and would love to explore how things work by applying scientific principles to real world scenarios possibly as an Information System Specialist or even as a Pilot.  He wants to advocate for increased funding for research and development in agriculture technology since it could help improve soil health, water conservation systems and renewable energy sources for farmers.

Reanna (Coder): is 17 years old and attends the Seventh-Day Adventist Secondary School. Her love for numbers and equations has her aspiring to pursue a programming career as a Software Engineer. She would like to see more significant investments being made to ensure STEM education is mainstreamed in the education system; so that future generations are equipped with the skills necessary to confront and sustainably resolve global energy challenges.

Tiskna (Inventory): is 14 years old and attends the St Anthony’s Secondary School.  She loves meeting new people and dreams of becoming either an Entrepreneur, Fashion Model or even possibly a Teacher. While Antigua and Barbuda is well known as a remarkable tourism destination, she believes that just as much or even more attention should be given to boosting the agriculture sector.

Xion (Engineer): is 14 years old and attends the St Joseph’s Academy School. From an early age he’s always been drawn to the sciences and is preparing a career path towards becoming a Civil Engineer. He believes that a HUGE overlooked opportunity that many nations should consider to not only help reduce food waste, but also provide a renewable source of cleaner energy is composting food scraps.