SUNDAY 9 February 2025

George Town, Grand Cayman

On Saturday 8 February, 2025, four 345Robotics teams participated in a VexIQ “Rapid Relay” Tournament in Kissimmee, Florida. Two of the teams won Judges’ awards and a third team won third place in the teamwork challenge.

The three- and four-member teams comprise young people, ages 7 to 12. Since August they have been working to design, build, code and drive robots for this year’s global VexIQ robotics competition, called “Rapid Relay”, under the mentoring of coaches Kendra Okonski and Brandon Ebanks.  

Over the course of the day, the four teams excelled in their participation in a fast-paced series of one-minute matches: robot skills (driving and autonomous coding) and the “teamwork challenge” (collaborative driving with two teams working in an alliance). They participated alongside at least 40 other teams from central Florida, including both elementary school (primary) and middle school (years 7-9) teams. 

During the awards ceremony at the finale of the event, two of the teams won judged awards, and another team finished in third place during the overall event finals.   

The judges at the event commended all the 345Robotics teams for their ability to partner in high-scoring alliances with teams by focusing on collaborative strategy and quick thinking.  

TEAM AWARDS:

Team 6810B, an all-girls team whose members are Omya Arora (10), Brianna Atkinson (12), and Danielle Webster (10), received one of two coveted Judges’ Awards given at the event. After interviewing all the teams, the judges observed emphatically that this team exhibited perseverance and resilience in spite of many constraints throughout the season.

Team 6810D, comprising Meeraa Muthukumar (10), Ava Tyrone (8), and Ethan Solomon (7), received the prestigious VexIQ Sportsmanship Award, which “recognizes a high degree of good sportsmanship, helpfulness, respect, and a positive attitude both on and off the competition field.” This was all the more remarkable because the team was competing for the first time outside the Cayman Islands.

Team 6810C, comprising Nathan Abbott (8), Coen Joukhadar (12), and Antonio Sanchez Matos (10) – also participating for the first time in an international competition – qualified for the event finals, and ultimately finished in third place overall.

Team 6810A, comprising Kai Latif (9), Aaron Sanchez Matos (8), and Ava Stephano (9), was also competing as a full team for the first time.  

345Robotics is a Cayman Islands non-profit organisation dedicated to fostering robotics learning and competition for young people. We work in partnership and collaboration with the US-based Robotics & Education Competition Foundation to enable Cayman Islands teams to participate in the global VexIQ robotics competition, which has 1.1 million participants in 70 countries globally.      

Coach Kendra Okonski noted, “Our flagship sponsor in the 2024-2025 season is Enterprise Cayman. Since the summer, we have been using the Signal House building to mentor many young people and to cultivate these four VexIQ teams. This partnership has enabled us to build fun and inclusive community for young people – and we actively seek to add more competition teams to our roster during the coming year.”

Ms. Okonski also underscored the significant volunteer commitments that underpin both 345Robotics, and the events that the teams attended – Robolution (18 January) and the OSCS Tournament (8 February).  “We are grateful to the event partner – Osceola STEM Charter School – and volunteer referees, judges, fellow coaches and teams that we connected with at the event,” she said.  

ENDS

MORE INFORMATION:

* The event was organised by and held at OSCS – Osceola STEM Charter School – in Kissimmee, Florida, on Saturday 8 February 2025.

345Robotics is a registered Cayman Islands non-profit organisation. Contact us at info@345robotics.org & sign up for our mailing list: https://www.345robotics.org/contact/ 

Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/345robotics
And Facebook – https://facebook.com/345robotics

Video and text explaining the 2024-25 VexIQ “Rapid Relay” robotics competition: https://www.vexrobotics.com/iq/competition/viqc-current-game

VexIQ Sportsmanship Award: https://kb.roboticseducation.org/hc/en-us/articles/4912455338391-Guide-to-Judging-Awards#sportsmanship-award-gpuY0

Key criteria of the Sportsmanship Award are:

• Team is courteous, helpful, and respectful to everyone, on and off the field.
• Team interacts with others in the spirit of friendly competition and cooperation.
• Team acts with honesty and integrity, enriching the event experience for all.

(The VexIQ Sportsmanship award also was earned by 345Robotics Team 6810B, at the Robolution 2025 event on Saturday 18 January in Broward County, Florida.)