Positive results for Team Seychelles at second robotics competition in Mexico |25 August 2018

Team Seychelles is proud of its performance at the recently held FIRST Global Challenge 2018 at the Mexico City Arena as the girls designed, programmed and drove their own robot, team leader Xavier Estico has said.

Mr Estico was speaking during a debriefing session with parents at the National Institute for Science, Technology and Innovation (NISTI) headquarters at Bel-Ombre on Thursday, where members of Team Seychelles at the event also received their certificates.

The team was made up of leader Stephie-Anne Monthy, programmer Trisha Labiche, designer Amy Joubert, driver Louta Bastienne and technical mentor Beryl Payet.

They finished 125th out of 161 participating countries.

The FIRST Global Challenge, the most important robotics competition in the world, challenges school students between 14 and 18 years old to solve energy efficiency problems with robots.

More than 1,300 young people represented their countries in the “Energy Impact” competition, in favour of a better environment.

Each team, consisting of up to five members developed a robot capable of feeding power plants to scale and building a transmission network in the most efficient way. The teams joined together in a random way in alliances in order to reach their goal and score points.

FIRST Global seeks to inspire young people with leadership and innovation in the fields of science and technology, to address the most relevant problems worldwide and improve the quality of life of society.

The challenge of this competition reflected on how science and engineering, in an environment of cooperation, communication and teamwork, can achieve transcendent actions and solve many of the great challenges facing humanity.

It also seeks to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education while empowering young people across the world and inspiring them to think innovatively

Mr Estico said this year’s results cannot be compared to last year’s event which was a pilot version, while this year it was the real Olympic Games.

Team Seychelles won three matches out of eight, placing them 125th overall.

They were also awarded a Safety Award Certificate for well maintaining their pit and also for wearing their protective equipment at all time.

Only 20 countries received the award.

Mr Estico said the overall performance is a great achievement, taking into account that the four girls completed the whole project on their own, without any external assistance.

He explained that other countries brought along professionals in the field, including professors and engineers, thus making their project more powerful and more effective than ours.

Mr Estico however noted that despite being simple, Team Seychelles’ robot managed to compete and gave the other countries a good run for their money.

He also commended the team for their good team spirit and determination, despite the stress and fatigue due to long flights.

Mr Estico also thanked the sponsors and urged them to keep supporting the cause as it is a good investment, not only in the development of the youth, but also in the future of the country.

They are the Vice-President’s Office, Seychelles Children Special Fund, the Environmental Trust Fund, D’Offay Pharmacy (Beau Vallon), the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA), the Coral Strand Hotel, the Montreal Pty Ltd and Ethiopian Airlines among others.

Speaking about the first-time experience, leader Stephie-Anne Monthy recalled their match with Grenada and St Lucia as her most cherished memory at the competition.

“I remember them thanking us, as our robot was helping them to score points, as if we were the big country in that match,” she said.

“It was an honour, as we usually went in as one of the smallest countries, but for once, other countries were looking up to us,” she added.

Team programmer Trisha Labiche said she is very happy with the result and she is also grateful for the help received from the other teams.

She also praised her teammates for their devotion and excellent team spirit.

On her part team driver Louta Bastienne thanked all those who helped the team in one way or another from day one, up to the competition.

She added that with continuous and further support, Team Seychelles will bring better results next time.

Team designer Amy Joubert is proud that their robot could outclass other bigger and more robust robots at the competition.

“I was also proud to be the country’s flag bearer at the competition,” she added.

Technical mentor Beryl Payet explained that the end result doesn’t depend only on your robot, but also on the robots of other teams.

“Some robots were performing well, so it pushed ours to perform well, while others were not that good, therefore it affected our performance as well,” she added.

She further added that despite its smaller size, compared to others, the robot of Team Seychelles performed really well.

“No major maintenance were required on our robot all throughout the whole competition,” added Ms Payet.

In July 2017 the FIRST Global Challenge was held in the city of Washington and Team Seychelles finished 105th out of 163 countries.