Fourth-form student of Jamaica College in St Andrew, Gavin Smith, gives a critical eye to the school's robotics display at the Jamaica Day 2013 Exposition held on February 22 at the Trelawny Multipurpose Stadium. - File
[color:5840=blue !important][color:5840=blue !important]Jamaica College earned fine honours at this year's US FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Competition at the Jacob Javits Convention Centre in New York, United States.Held from March 7-8, Jamaica College entered two teams in the competition, Gold Griffin and Blue Griffin.
Gold Griffin won the Inspire Award, the highest award given by the organisers and is equivalent to first place but held in a higher status.
This formally judged award is given to the team that truly embodied the 'challenge' of the competition. The team getting this award is chosen by the judges as having best represented a 'role model' FIRST Tech Challenge Team. This team is a top contender for all other judging categories and is a strong competitor on the field.
An inspiration to others
The Inspire Award [color:5840=blue !important][color:5840=blue !important]winner is an inspiration to other teams, acting with gracious professionalism, both on and off the playing field. This team understands how to communicate their experiences and knowledge to other teams, sponsors and the judges.
Gold Griffin was also nominated for the Outreach/Connect Award as well as the Innovator/Think Award.
In the meantime, Blue Griffin took the fourth place out of 73 teams, after winning three of four matches. Fourth going into the quarter-finals, unfortunately they lost two to one to their opponents.
Blue Griffin was also nominated for the PTC Design Award.
Club president and school captain, Gavin Samuels; chief engineer Paul Pounall; chief programmer Antonio Fearon, and the rest of the team were happy to earn the honours.
The only high school from the [color:5840=blue !important][color:5840=blue !important]Caribbean to compete in the United States-based 24-year-old FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) competition, Jamaica College has been competing for the past four years. They placed 65th when first entered in 2010, moving up to 12th place the following year, before taking third place last year.