Team Sri Lanka came 6th out of 192 countries at the FIRST Global Challenge in Athens from 26-29 September and came home with a Gold medal after winning the Zhang Heng Award for Engineering Design, the highest prize for technical achievement awarded by the organising committee, for the second time in three years.

The FIRST Global Challenge (FGC), the largest Robotics competition in the world for school students, aims to inspire young people to pursue careers in STEM. As a prestigious international event, it has in the past been visited by leaders such as Ivanka Trump, Mexican President Manuel López Obrador and World Bank President Dr. Jim Yong Kim. FGC 2024 was honoured by a message from the White House commending its

impact and musician will.i.am, a supporter of FGC since its inception, performed at the closing ceremony.

For the eighth consecutive year, Elizabeth Moir School was invited to assemble the team that would represent Sri Lanka. Previous teams organised by the school took part in competitions in Washington, D.C., Mexico City, Dubai, Geneva and Singapore.  The team has won an award for technical excellence and engineering at every tournament since the inaugural event in Washington.

Each year the school has invited students from other schools to take part along with its own students. Previous teams have included students from the British School in Colombo, St. John’s College, Jaffna and Richmond College, Galle. This year’s team included students from Dharmapala College and St. Sebastian’s College.

The delegation that went to Athens consisted of Raveen Akuretiyagama, Maleeka Raddygala, Hiveen Ramachandra, Tharul Senanayake and Supul Baddegama, all from Elizabeth Moir School. They, along with teammates Pulsitha Peiris and Savain Fernando, spent several months designing, building and programming the robot. The theme of the FIRST Global Challenge 2024 was Feeding the Future. The teams competed to complete challenges that “highlight the need to simultaneously improve economic, social, and environmental impacts in order to create a truly sustainable food system.” Team Mentor Shivashankaran Satchithananthan said: “The schedule was intense, with back-to-back games pushing teams to strategies and work on their robots in between matches. Despite the pressure, they rose to the challenge and delivered an outstanding performance.”