22 Jun 2017

Five learners from Kagiso Senior Secondary School in Ramotswa are gearing up to represent the country at the inaugural First Global Challenge Robotics Competition set to be held in Washington DC, in the United States of America.

The form five students, three male learners, Laone Radikara, Kamogelo Nakedi and Robin Tau, as well as two females, Naomi Makhura and Laone Tsamai will travel to the USA to compete with a robot they designed. 

In an interview, the learners said they were excited by the opportunity to partake in the competition, which will see students from 163 secondary schools across the world contesting.

“We are very happy to represent the country, we are excited about the chance to showcase what we have designed. Following the problem statement sent by the organisers, we designed a robot that showcases the concept of purifying water. 

The robot separates orange balls from blue balls; the orange balls representing impurities in water, the blue ones represent clean molecules,” Tsamai said.

She added that they would not be intimidated by competing with students from across the world, including those in the more technologically advanced countries of North America, Europe and Asia. 

“We feel this is a good platform for us. We love scientific subjects because of our curiosity and because they are challenging subjects, and we see this trip as an exciting extension of the challenge we normally face in our school projects,” Tsamai said.

Tau added that they had seen videos of some of the other countries' representatives and are looking forward go exchanging ideas with their peers at the event, scheduled for the George Washington University. 

Their Computer Science subject teacher, Ms Gaone Karabo told BOPA that after an invitation was extended they selected the five students based on their performance.

“We looked at the overall performance of the students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. 

The five we chose to represent us have excelled in subjects such as Biology, Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics as well as Computer Science,” Ms Karabo said.

Design and Technology Teacher, Mr Letlhogonolo Madisa added that that as the country aspires to move towards a more industrial-based economy, students who excel in scientific subjects need to be encouraged to be innovative. BOPA