The five Nigerian students drawn from secondary schools across the country have been selected to represent Nigeria at this year’s FIRST Global Robotics Olympics tagged the virtual Challenge 2021.
The students, Simon Adikwu, Olaiya Kayode, Vihaan Nagarkar, Amarachi Oji, and Chiugo Nnoruka were selected from a try-out session with over 50 secondary schools in attendance.
The FIRST Global Challenge Founded by Dean Kamen to inspire a passion for science and technology leadership and innovation among the world’s more than two billion youths, it provides the framework for an Olympics-style robotics event that drives home the importance of obtaining the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills needed by future leaders to overcome the greatest challenges facing the world.
Read also: Here is how Team Nigeria performed at Tokyo Olympics
With a mission to inspire STEM, FIRST Global is a nonprofit that organizes a yearly robotic game with teams representing over 190 nations around the world.
Speaking at this year’s Team Nigeria preparatory event over the weekend, the managing director of Doculand Group Nigeria and Aramex Faisal Jarmakani who is a lover of robotics and a proud sponsor of Team Nigeria for the 5th year in a roll advised the student to give their all, noting that this is a huge opportunity to compete with the rest of the world and make Nigeria proud.
Giving a vote of thanks at the Aramex preparatory ground Lagos, Nigeria, one of the contestants has this to say; “To me, FIRST Global means more than just a STEM challenge, it means an opportunity. Not only an opportunity to learn more about STEM and robotics, but an opportunity to develop and prepare me for the future.”
