The FIRST Global Challenge is an international, Olympics-style robotics competition held in a different country each year. This year, the event will take place in the historic city of Athens, Greece, from September 26–29.
Known as the Robotics Olympics, the competition is the world’s largest and most diverse, attracting high school students from over 190 countries. Participants will engage in a contest centred on the theme, “Feeding the Future.”
Innovation and Problem-Solving in Robotics
Students are tasked with using their creativity and critical thinking to design and build robots from a standardised kit. Each team must then navigate their robot through a simulated environment, highlighting the complex interrelationship between water, food, and energy systems. The goal is to balance these global resources to support a sustainable food system.
In addition to the main competition, teams will take part in the Feeding the Future New Technology Experience, where they will research and develop innovative solutions to create a more resilient and equitable food system. This challenge emphasises the economic, social, and environmental benefits of these technologies.
Jamaica’s Winning Streak at the FIRST Global Challenge
Jamaica has a history of success at the FIRST Global Challenge. In 2022, the team earned a silver medal in the Albert Einstein Award category in Geneva, Switzerland. This award recognises the teams whose robots performed best during the competition and embodied the values of the FIRST Global community. That year, Mexico won gold, Jamaica received silver, and Germany took bronze.
In 2023, the team earned a gold medal in the Katherine Johnson Award for engineering documentation in Singapore. The award, named after African-American mathematician Katherine Johnson—who helped calculate trajectories that enabled the safe return of astronauts John Glenn and Alan Shepard to Earth—honours excellence in engineering documentation.
Team Jamaica’s 2024 Challengers
This year’s team consists of nine high school students from the American International School of Kingston (AISK), Campion College, Hillel Academy, Immaculate Conception High School, Kingston College (KC), and Wolmer’s Boys’ School. Team members include Alwyn Brown of KC, Ojani Chung of Campion, Emily Zhu of Hillel Academy, Abbigail Cato of Immaculate, Sean-Michael Williams of AISK, and support student Jordon Williams of Wolmer’s.
You can watch the competition live on the official YouTube page and cheer on Team Jamaica.
