For Immediate Release: December 4, 2023

Robert D. Jones

Hand & Mind LLC

handmindenrichment@gmail.com

203-550-3051 mobile

roboticsturkey.org

RESOUNDING SUCCESS! - ROBOTICS & TURKEY, THE 3-DAY YOUTH ROBOTICS CONFERENCE FEATURING ART & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, IN MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA.

The international conference broadens the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) talent pipeline by engaging children aged 9-14 yrs. old, particularly girls and children of color.

MT. VERNON, NY December 4, 2023

The inaugural Robotics & turkey Conference was held over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, Thursday, Nov. 23 to Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023 at the Holiday Inn Rosehall Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica. 

The international conference’s audience is FIRST LEGO League (FLL) robotics team delegations that consist of a team member, their parent, and a team coach. There are 45,000 FLL teams worldwide.  The inaugural Robotics & turkey had an audience of 39 representing 14 different robotics teams from United States and Jamaica.  Two-thirds of the registrants were female. 

Robotics & turkey has been featured in Forbes and is endorsed by the Director of Admissions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Robotics & turkey’s theme is 2023-24 FIRST LEGO League’s MasterPiece theme: imagine and innovate new ways to create and communicate art across the globe.

On Thanksgiving evening, The Honourable Fayval Williams, MP, Jamaica’s Minister of Education & Youth delivered opening remarks and shared that only 50% of Jamaican schools have internet access.  Despite that handicap, Jamaica excels in international robotics competitions such as FIRST Global Competition.  The captains of Jamaica’s recent award-winning national high school robotics teams (2023 Gold Medalist in Singapore and 2022 Silver Medalist in Geneva) participated in Robotics & turkey and inspired the younger roboticists who attend primary, elementary and middle schools.

The opening keynote speaker, Mr. Malik Afegbua, a Nigerian-based film director and virtual reality developer, delivered a scintillating, pre-recorded presentation on “Ai for Good.”   Mr. Afegbua has very recently collaborated with Ruth E. Carter, the film costume designer and winner of 2 Oscars for her designs in the Black Panther movies.

On “Black Friday” morning, Gunjan Mansingh, a Professor of Data Science at The University of the West Indies in Jamaica, delivered a highly interactive presentation on Art/STEM Integration in which participants contested in providing the necessary prompts for an AI program to generate a specified visual artwork.

Immediately afterwards, a 12-hour challenge was revealed by Robert Jones. The participants separated into 3 teams to create and to perform by 9:30pm that evening a unified artistic presentation that leverages the often-underutilized senses of taste, smell, and touch, and not exceed 10 minutes duration.

The half-day session on Saturday morning opened with an intriguing workshop on “AI & Misinformation” by Prof. Mansingh and closed with a conference summative presentation on “The Arts, Artificial Intelligence, and Chat GPT” by Dr. Evelyn Collins, founder of the Denzel Washington School of the Arts in Mt. Vernon, NY.

Conference registrants returned to their respective robotics teams with new strategies that are expected to improve team performance at upcoming qualifying tournaments over the next few months.

United States teams represented at 2023 Robotics & turkey were all from New York and were Cambria Warbots, Xaverian, Girl Scouts Troop 4760, IS 192Q, PS 35Q, Bronx EFKs, DWSA ArtSonics, and BBL Lions.

Jamaican robotics teams represented include Bethany, New Day, Shortwood, ORCS, and high schools Immaculate and Campion.

The 501(3)(c) conference sponsors were the New York Solar Energy Society and the Union of Jamaican Alumni Associations (USA) Inc.

The 2nd annual Robotics & turkey Conference will be held Thu., Nov. 28 to Sat., Nov. 30, 2024.

Go to roboticsturkey.org for more information.      ###