Introduction to the FIRST Global Challenge
As the students commit to participate in the FIRST Global 2022 challenge, students are required to design and develop a working robot, capable of mounting the challenge and game specifications.
The challenge, themed “Carbon Capture”, revolves around retrieving globally emitted greenhouse gases, specifically Carbon Dioxide (CO2).
– CO2 ‘traps’ heat from the sun in the atmosphere, and thus leads to increasing climate temperatures.
As a consequence of climate change, in which CO2 emissions play a great role, nations across the world are to anticipate extreme climate events.
To prevent this, or to say, to reduce the effects of climate change, retrieving CO2 from the atmosphere counts crucial to reducing climate temperatures and so fight climate change.
And so, FIRST Global aims at uniting the growing youth to tackle the important things of life; through collaboration, creativity and vision.
The students design and prototype robots through the guidance of their mentors. The mentors do not participate in the development of the robot, but do provide the students with resources and advice through past experiences (Note, the mentors are former team members and have participated in a previous challenge).
-Advice and assistance may range from suggesting suitable CAD software and tools, using hardware tools, or even how to brainstorm. The range is never ending, as there is never a point of learning too much.
With that being said, the robots displayed in this category, are entirely designed by students and should be considered as such. The overall capabilities of the robot do not dictate the capabilities of the students but train them to cooperate and communicate as a team, and to expand their skill sets in STEM.
It is noteworthy, that the team competes against international teams from different backgrounds, cultures and various different languages. Cooperation and communication are key, especially in a challenge like FIRST Global, where teams are challenged in forming working alliances (cooperating teams during the game environment).
The team will begin with brainstorming robot ideas, prototyping these ideas, testing these and finally building the final robot. So stay tuned for regular blog posts, and follow the team on their way to Geneva, Switzerland – the pinnacle of the competition.