Cayman’s youth continues to shine in the field of robotics in overseas competitions, after picking up several awards in Florida last week.
On Saturday, 8 Feb., four 345Robotics teams participated in a VexIQ ‘Rapid Relay’ Tournament in Kissimmee, Florida. Two of the teams won judges’ awards and a third squad won third place in the teamwork challenge.
The three- and four-member teams, made up of students aged 7 to 12, have been working since August to design, build, code and drive robots for this year’s competition, under the mentoring of coaches Kendra Okonski and Brandon Ebanks, according to a press release from 345Robotics.
Over the course of the day, the four teams excelled in their participation in a fast-paced series of one-minute matches covering robot skills (driving and autonomous coding) and the teamwork challenge of collaborative driving with two teams working together.
The squads participated alongside at least 40 other teams from central Florida, including both primary and middle school teams.
During the awards ceremony at the finale of the event, two of the teams won judges’ awards, and another team finished in third place during the overall event finals.
An all-girls team of Omya Arora, 10; Brianna Atkinson, 12; and Danielle Webster, 10, received one of two coveted judges’ awards. After interviewing all the teams, the judges observed that they exhibited perseverance and resilience in spite of many constraints throughout the season, according to the release.
A team comprising Meeraa Muthukumar, 10; Ava Tyrone, 8; and Ethan Solomon, 7, received the VexIQ Sportsmanship Award, which “recognizes a high degree of good sportsmanship, helpfulness, respect, and a positive attitude both on and off the competition field”, 345Robotics said in the release.
The team of Nathan Abbott, 8; Coen Joukhadar, 12; and Antonio Sanchez Matos, 10, qualified for the event finals, and ultimately finished in third place overall. Also taking part were Kai Latif, 9; Aaron Sanchez Matos, 8; and Ava Stephano, 9, who, like many others, were competing as a full team for the first time.
345Robotics is a Cayman Islands non-profit organisation dedicated to improving robotics learning for young people. The group works in partnership with the US-based Robotics & Education Competition Foundation to enable Cayman Islands teams to participate in the global VexIQ robotics competition, which attracts 1.1 million participants in 70 countries.
This was the second overseas event in which 345Robotics has competed so far this year, with four members travelling to Florida for Robolution 2025 last month.
“Since the summer, we have been mentoring many young people and to cultivate these four VexIQ teams,” Coach Okonski said in the release. “This partnership has enabled us to build fun and inclusive community for young people and we actively seek to add more competition teams to our roster during the coming year.”
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