{"id":53235,"date":"2025-03-04T10:26:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T10:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/30-rwandan-students-to-represent-africa-at-global-robotics-competition-in-the-u\/"},"modified":"2025-03-04T10:26:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T10:26:42","slug":"30-rwandan-students-to-represent-africa-at-global-robotics-competition-in-the-u","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/30-rwandan-students-to-represent-africa-at-global-robotics-competition-in-the-u\/","title":{"rendered":"30 Rwandan students to represent Africa at global robotics competition in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

The competition promotes education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) by encouraging participants to use robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) to solve global challenges.<\/p>\n

The Rwandan team will compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), the most advanced category that involves designing and building large, industrial-style robots. These students earned their spot after excelling in the FIRST Lego League (FLL) competitions held in Rwanda.<\/p>\n

Following their victory, they joined forces and applied to compete in the more challenging FRC category. Their request was approved, allowing them to become the first African team to participate at this advanced level.<\/p>\n

Their team, known as Ladybug FRC 9647, will make history as no other African country has competed in the FRC category. This level requires advanced technical skills and significant resources, making it difficult for most African countries to participate beyond the FLL level, which involves simpler robots.<\/p>\n

The team is receiving vital support from the Ministry of ICT and Innovation, ICT Chamber, and FabLab Rwanda. These institutions are providing equipment, training, and financial support. Every weekend, the students gather at FabLab in Kigali to work on their robot and prepare for the competition.<\/p>\n

The competition will take place in two phases. The first phase will be held on April 2, 2025, in Florida, where the team will face 47 other teams from around the world. If they succeed, they will advance to the final phase in Texas on April 19, 2025.<\/p>\n

Beni Bonheur Karangwa Muhoza a sixth-year student at Coll\u00e8ge du Christ-Roi in Nyanza, described the competition as a life-changing opportunity. “Working on this project every week teaches us a lot. Being one of the 30 students representing Africa is a huge honor,” he said.<\/p>\n

Liza Ndabikunze Ineza, a fifth-year student at Coll\u00e8ge Saint Andr\u00e9 in Nyamirambo, is excited to improve her technical skills. She hopes the competition will help her build robots that solve real-world problems beyond industrial use.<\/p>\n

Pacifique Rubagumya, a student at Kagarama Secondary School in Kicukiro, is passionate about robotics and believes the competition is a chance to showcase Rwanda\u2019s potential. “Youth are the driving force of our country. We want to lead in technology and accelerate national development,” he said.<\/p>\n

Philemon Manzi Mucyo, a research specialist at FabLab, expressed pride in supporting the team. He said FabLab is committed to providing the tools and resources needed to help the students succeed.<\/p>\n

Ladybug FRC 9647\u2019s participation marks a historic moment for Rwanda and Africa. Their journey demonstrates the potential of African youth to lead in global technological innovation and paves the way for future generations.<\/p>\n

\"Thirty<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thirty Rwandan secondary school students, aged between 16 and 20, will represent Africa at the international robotics competition organized by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in the United States in April this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":2000082979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-53235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000082979,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-375.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-375.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-375.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-375.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-375.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-375.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000082979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53235"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=53235"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=53235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}