Micronesia Students Proudly Compete in Robotics "Olympics"

Three students from Yap State proudly represented the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) at an international high school robotics competition this July in Washington DC.

Natasha Loochaz, John Steven Gilinug, and Francis Yarofalyango, comprised Team Micronesia, and joined students from over 150 other nations at the event.

Over several months each team designed, built, and programmed, their own complex robot based on the same simple parts kit, bringing the robots to the FIRST Global Challenge in DC for the matches and exhibition. In the arena, robots were organized into teams of three, battling to quickly gather and sort plastic balls representing clean water and contaminated water.

Advanced Science, Robotics, Showcased by Island Students

Students recount science studies at the high school STEM exhibition on Yap, Micronesia 

Elaborate cultural dances and seafaring canoes have made the Islands of Yap famous, but this month it was the ultra-advanced Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math skills of local students on display.

An annual competition and exhibition organized by Yap Catholic High School drew nearly 200 community members who came to watch and support 70 high school student participants.

Micronesia's Robotic Olympians Training, Fundraising

Reprinted with permission from Kaselehlie Press, Volume 17, Issue 10

Micronesia's famously traditional Island of Stone Money is sending top students to a high tech global robotics competition this summer. The team, their teachers, and a network of supporters, are working hard to ensure they arrive on time, properly equipped, and prepared to compete.

Support the team at GoFundMe.com/YapRobo

The FIRST Global Challenge is a worldwide robotics competition scheduled for mid-July in Washington DC.  Small student teams design, build, and compete complex robots from simple parts. Featuring over 150 teams from across the planet, it also serves as a forum for students to meet and partner with diverse international peers.

From Stone Money to STEM Olympians: Micronesian students head to International Robotics Competition

The famously traditional Island of Stone Money is sending top students to a high tech global robotics competition.

Students from 153 nations will gather in Washington DC this summer for the international high school robotics Olympics. Few will have traveled as far –geographically or culturally– as the Robo League team from Yap.

The FIRST Global Challenge is a worldwide robotics competition. Small student teams design, build, and compete complex robots from simple parts. The work demands hands-on mastery of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) skills. Featuring teams from across the planet, it also serves as a forum for students to meet and partner with diverse international peers.

Students in Yap –a remote Micronesian Island most famous for its Stone Money– established their own Robotics League in 2011, holding Micronesia’s first public exhibition in summer of 2012.

Organized by US-based NGO “Habele,” the Yap Robo League remains the only coordinated multi-year robotics program in the Central or Western Pacific. It has grown and thrived through a defining partnership with a robotics team at Chaminade College Preparatory School, in Los Angeles, California. In-kind gifts of time and talent, as well as private donations and local fundraisers entirely finance the league.