The students use STEM concepts to tackle problems in their communities while forming alliances with teams from other continents.
Doha: High school students from Qatar have developed an underwater robot to rescue marine creatures affected by plastic pollution in the 2021 FIRST Global Challenge, an “Olympics”-style robotics event.
Team Qatar, the STEM-vengers, consists of 16 students from 10 schools in Qatar. The FIRST Global Challenge invites each country to nominate a team to compete in a Robotics Olympics based on the 14 Grand Challenges of Engineering identified by the US National Academy of Engineering.
Team Qatar comprises 14 students from 10 different schools.
The 2021 FIRST Global Challenge consists of three months filled with technical and social media challenges, talks by STEM professionals, and technical training sessions while connecting the FIRST Global Community worldwide.
This year, under the theme of “Discover & Recover,” the students explore how STEM is key to finding solutions to challenges relating to education, the environment, health, and the economy that can prepare them to build a better tomorrow. The season began in June and concludes on September 28.
One of this year’s challenges is the Solutions Challenge. The students use STEM concepts to tackle problems in their communities while forming alliances with teams from other continents to augment their work.
Team Qatar proposed addressing a challenge in the environmental category by building a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) to rescue marine creatures affected by plastic pollution and fishing gear, with an added sample collection feature to test for soil toxicity.
The main components of the ROV include the remote control, DC motors, and propellers, vision underwater using cameras, claws to remove plastic waste or nets from the sea creatures, a tool that to cut through the plastic waste to free the creatures without causing harm to them, a compartment to keep the rescued sea creatures safe, and a cylindrical tub that collects the soil samples.
Team Qatar’s Mahi Sharma said, “I am really excited to be participating this year as I am part of a really good team, and the environment has been great so far. We learned a lot about robotics and worked well with each other, even though some did not have previous experience with robotics. I find my experience as part of Team Qatar very useful.”
