STEMGuyana signs pact to bring international robot competition to Guyana

On September 19, 2018, STEMGuyana signed a pact with the International Youth Robot (IYR) Association to be the prequalifying body for organizing the annual qualifier national robot competition among Guyanese primary and secondary school-aged student-teams to represent Guyana at the International Youth Robotics Competition.

STEMGuyana in a release yesterday said that it will work with public and private local partners to host the IYR league pre-qualifier competition in Guyana next year. The competition is expected to attract more than 100 school teams, community centre clubs and other civil society organizations in the 7-12 yrs, 13-17 yrs and open categories of competition. Participation in the IYR competition means that Guyana now competes in two global competitions including the First Global competition to which Guyana has sent two national teams to represent the country in 2017 and 2018.

The 2018 IYR will be held 30 Nov.-1 Dec. at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand while the location of the 2019 competition in which Guyana will compete has not yet been disclosed. For the young people participating in the robotics league, the annual competition will be the culmination of months of preparation which will see students develop their technical and other skills.

Co-Founder of STEMGuyana, Karen Abrams said that Guyana’s participation will, for the first time, allow primary and secondary schools students and out-ofschool youth in Guyana to join more than 100 nations in the world whose youth are able to benefit from participation and exposure to robot building and programming activities at the global level. “Our young people will gain the confidence and expertise needed to excel at the global level and the early exposure will ultimately benefit student Maths and Science performance,“said Abrams.

“Our major challenge is to ensure that young people from all walks of life are able to participate— not just those whose parents and schools can afford robots, “said Abrams. To that end, she said that they asking the private sector organizations to sponsor robot kits for clubs and schools in the communities in which their customers live. She also thanked the Office of the First Lady, GTT, the Diaspora, the Department of Youth, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Telecommunications for their support in making the programme possible.

Abrams added that the STEMGuyana plan for 100 STEM clubs in 2019 was ambitious, but with the support of the public and private sectors and the Diaspora, she was confident.

STEMGuyana will certify more than 50 STEM club coaches in October 1st - 4th, 2018 and plans a second session for another 50 potential coaches for the following week. Schools and clubs interested in participating in the national league in 2019 are encouraged to call STEMGuyana at 592-616-4454 or email stemguyana@ gmail.com to register for the October 8th9th training programme.