A team of primary school students competing in a robotics competition in Florida has carried off the prestigious Vex IQ Sportsmanship Award.
Brianna Atkinson, 12, and Omya Arora, 11, received the award, which “recognizes a high degree of good sportsmanship, helpfulness, respect, and a positive attitude both on and off the competition field”.
“The organisers were impressed by how the team handled themselves in the competition,” coach Kendra Okonski said.
“It was really challenging but they smiled the whole day long.”
Four members of 345Robotics, a volunteer-led, non-profit community group aimed at teaching robotics to children, travelled to Florida to compete in Robolution 2025, which took place on Saturday, 18 Jan., at Hawkes Bluff Elementary School in Broward County, Florida.
The students were among 20 primary school attendees who have been working since August to design, build, code and drive robots for this year’s Vex IQ competition, working with instructors and coaches Brandon Ebanks and Kendra Okonski.
The event saw more than 100 students in 20 teams competing in a series of one-minute challenges. This included ‘robot skills’, which tested the teams’ abilities to drive their robots both manually and with autonomous coding, and a ‘teamwork’ challenge where teams had to form alliances to complete challenges.
It was the first time that the students had competed in a robotics competition outside of the Cayman Islands. They were undaunted by the challenge, even though Omya was competing on crutches due to a recent gymnastics injury. A third member of the award-winning team, Danielle Webster, 11, did not travel to the competition.
A second 345Robotics team, composed of Kai Latif and Ava Stephano, both 9, also competed in the event and all four team members – Kai, Ava, Brianna and Omya – received the event’s ‘Golden Gear’ recognition awards.
In addition, Omya and Ava received special commendation from the judges for their positive contribution to fellow participants and volunteers at the event.
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