Ethiopian Teens Achieve Victory at the 2024 Global Challenge Robotics Competition
A group of talented Ethiopian teenagers made their mark on the world stage by excelling at the 2024 FIRST Global Challenge, an international robotics competition held in Athens, Greece.
The event, often referred to as the “Robotics Olympics,” brings together young innovators from around the world to showcase their technical skills and creativity.
The Ethiopian team, comprised of five students aged 14 to 18 from various educational institutions, competed from September 24 to 29, 2024, and achieved an impressive second-place finish.
The FIRST Global Challenge is an annual, Olympics-style robotics competition, where each country sends a team to design, build, and program a robot to compete in a series of challenges.
In 2024, the event attracted participants from 195 nations, making it a truly global competition.
This year’s theme, “Feeding the Future,” challenged teams to develop innovative solutions to address global food security issues and promote sustainable agricultural practices.
Representing Ethiopia were five students: Caleb Ermias, Mikias Theodores, Tsion Fitsum, Abigia Fitsum, and Selome Berhanu.
The team was guided by their coaches, Dagmawi Girum and Noah Getathew, who played a crucial role in preparing the students for the competition.
The Ethiopian team’s robot was designed to tackle challenges related to food production, distribution, and sustainability, in line with the competition’s overarching theme.
Coach Dagmawi told to Ethio Negari that, the Ethiopian team secured second place after advancing through 12 intense rounds of competition.
The teenagers won 8 of those rounds, propelling them to the finals, where they successfully completed 4 out of 6 rounds.
Though they finished as runners-up, the team’s performance was a significant achievement on the global stage, showcasing Ethiopia’s growing potential in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
The final results saw China, Madagascar, and Moldova take the top spots, with Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Cambodia, and Poland securing the runner-up positions. Singapore, Eswatini, Guatemala, and Trinidad and Tobago rounded out the top three rankings.
The Ethiopian contestants emphasized the need to improve STEM education across Africa, highlighting the lack of resources and opportunities in these fields.
They expressed their commitment to working toward solutions that can enhance education in science, technology, and mathematics for future generations in Ethiopia and beyond.
Coach Dagmawi also shed light on the significance of the competition, explaining that it had a “sports-like” atmosphere where students designed and built robots to address real-world problems.
The competition is organized annually by FIRST Global and Red Robotics to inspire young people worldwide to pursue STEM careers and develop critical problem-solving skills.
Through the theme of “Feeding the Future,” the competition encouraged students to devise innovative ways to increase food availability, reduce waste, and improve agricultural efficiency.
The Ethiopian team has been participating in robotics competitions since 2017, and their current success in Athens, the capital of Greece, is a testament to their dedication and skill.
Beyond the competition, the students acknowledged that these events provide an invaluable opportunity to develop a wide range of skills that can be applied to solving complex challenges faced by their country and the world at large.
This victory not only reflects the potential of Ethiopian youth in the global robotics arena but also serves as an inspiration for future generations to explore STEM fields and take part in global innovation efforts.
By Samuel Abate
