Robotics Competition Hosted on Campus

After an exciting first place victory at the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) finals, the students of Jamaica College in Kingston, Jamaica, advanced to Super Regionals hosted at The University of Scranton.The bright minds of Jamaica College competed as the sole Caribbean country represented in this premier robotics competition. In 2018, the FTC hosted over 91,000 participants in more than 3,000 teams worldwide.

On the day of the event, thousands of hopefuls and their supporters packed into the Byron Center on Scranton’s campus waiting for their chance to showcase months of hard work. The Griffins, which is Jamaica College's team name and name of their robot, were one of the dozens of teams competing at the FTC.

“The FIRST Tech Challenge," explained Jason Brown, a senior at Jamaica college, “showcases science and technology through building robots based on a game plan that changes every year.” The FIRST Tech Challenge is much more than simply building robots as it requires a large amount of planning, time management and, most importantly, team building skills.

According to the students of Jamaica College, the process can take months. Each year presents a new challenging game plan that requires the robot to perform certain tasks.

“Based on the game, there’s a plan for each year. The robot has to balance on a balancing pad. It has to run autonomously, meaning there must be a code that operates the robot without you having to do it yourself," said Brown. 

The team was confident in their work for the Super-Regional Championships and hoped to advance to the World Championships in April in Detroit, Michigan.

To learn more about FTC visit their website here.