Robotics & turkey 2024 Post-Conference Press Release, December 6, 2024
For Immediate Release: December 6, 2024
Robert D. Jones
Hand & Mind LLC
203-550-3051 mobile
A PARADIGM SHIFT AT ROBOTICS & TURKEY 2024, THE 3-DAY YOUTH ROBOTICS CONFERENCE IN MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA FEATURING MARINE ECOLOGY, ENGAGING FIELD TRIP & INAUGURAL PIONEER AWARD.
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 6, 2024
An exciting field-trip, the inaugural Pioneer Award, and two highly pertinent speakers delivered a totally immersive experience and a paradigm shift at the 2nd annual Robotics & turkey (R&t) International Youth Robotics Conference that was held over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, Thursday, Nov. 28 to Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024 at the Catalonia Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
R&t 2024’s theme is 2024-25 FIRST® LEGO® League’s SUBMERGED theme: “Use creative thinking and LEGO® technology to explore the layers of the ocean and bring their learnings and ideas to the surface as students “sea” into the future.”
The 2nd annual Robotics & turkey had an in-person audience of +40 representing 12 different robotics teams from United States (5) and Jamaica (7), plus virtual participation from an American and a Nigerian team. Over half of the in-person registrants were female.
Conference participants seized the opportunity to improve their robot design and performance, receive feedback on their draft innovation project presentations, as well as snorkeling, boating, and hands-on learning during a field-trip to the Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory. The paradigm shift learned by conference participants was that designing and operating robots gets you a job, while researching and pitching innovation projects develops skills for creating jobs!
R&t has tremendous growth opportunity! FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) has 45,000 teams worldwide. A FLL team delegation to R&t typically consists of a team member, their parent, and a team coach.
Robotics & turkey has been featured in Forbes and is endorsed by the Director of Admissions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The inaugural 2023 conference was a resounding success!
Finally, R&t’s organizers are planning a new STEM talent pipeline initiative called Boston College Tour (BCT), that will coincide with the 12th annual Boston JerkFest held at Harvard on Friday, July 11 & Saturday, July 12, 2025. BCT primarily targets high school students of the Caribbean diaspora and of color and will initially provide curated campus tours of Harvard, MIT, Boston University, and Northeastern universities. Stay tuned for more info.
ADDITIONAL DETAIL
Three members of Jamaica’s 2024 award-winning high school robotics team (Bronze Medalist for the Dr. Mae Jamison Award for International Unity in Athens at FIRST® Global Competition) participated in R&t 2024. They mentored and inspired the younger roboticists who attend primary, elementary and middle schools.
A conference highlight was Jamaica’s High School Robotics Team members (Abbigail Cato and Ojani Chung) meeting members of Jamaica’s Women’s Soccer Team “Reggae Girlz”, also stationed at the resort.
Here were other conference highlights by day:
Thursday
· Welcome Message read by conference founder Mr. Robert Jones from The Honourable Fayval Williams, MP, Jamaica’s new Minister of Finance and The Public Service. Minister Williams, as then Minister of Education and Youth, attended the inaugural conference in 2023, and recently succeeded The Honourable Nigel Clarke who demitted office to become Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund.
· The opening keynote presentation “The Power of Three, and then the Deep Sea” by Dr. Mona K. Webber, a marine biologist and Head of the Department of Life Sciences and the Grace Kennedy Foundation, James Moss Solomon Sr. Chair in Environment at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.
· Conferring of the inaugural Pioneer Award to the environmental scientist, the late Dr. Barry A. Wade O.D., B.Sc., Ph.D. (in Marine Biology), M.J.I.M. Widow, Mrs. Merle Wade, and son, Mr. Francis Wade, were emotionally moved by the in-person remarks by Mrs. Eleanor Jones and Dr. Ruth Potopsingh, all technical colleagues of Dr. Wade, and followed by video testimony from Mr. David Silvera about Dr. Wade’s fervent commitment towards protecting the human rights of all citizens. Dr. Wade was more than a scientist!
· A new post-dinner dinner session allowed participants to bond within their assigned groups, to choose names for their groups, to review videos of robot performance rounds submitted by Nigerian and American teams, and kick-start “hands-on” robot performance improvement. Chosen group names were Aquatic, W Whales, and Sub-Ventures.
Friday
· Groups reviewing and providing feedback to 4 innovation project presentation videos submitted by American and Nigerian teams.
· Day #2 keynote presentation “Journeying to Underwater Robotics” by Mr. Rayanu Adam, a 2nd year electrical engineering major and robotics minor student at Cornell University, narrating his journey to being a member of Cornell University's Autonomous Underwater Vehicle 41-person team that placed third at the 2024 RoboSub competition. Mr. Adam is a recipient of the highly selective Gates Scholarship.
A highly memorable and engaging 5-hr. field trip to the Discovery Bay Marine Lab that included handling sea cucumbers, boating, and snorkeling. This was summarized with pictures and video by each of the 3 groups during a sharing and discussion session held after dinner.
Saturday
· A diverse workshop led by Robert Jones that covered robot performance and documentation strategy for rookies, a review and analysis of top performing teams at NYC regional championship, and closed with a shared understanding amongst all conference participants that designing and operating robots gets you a job, while researching and pitching innovation projects develops skills for creating jobs!
· A fun-filled closing ceremony led by conference co-developer Ms. Lesleyann Samuel with prizes and certificates.
Five United States teams represented at 2024 Robotics & turkey were all from New York and were Cambria Warbots, Girl Scouts Troop 4760, Bronx EFKs, BBL Lions, and Denzel Washington School of the Arts ArtSonics.
Seven Jamaican robotics teams represented include New Day, Shortwood, ORCS, Beulah, and high schools Immaculate, Campion, and AISK.
Additionally, a Nigerian team, Aurora, and the New York team, KIPP All Robo-Gators, received detailed feedback on their 5 minute video presentations of their innovation project drafts.
The 501(3)(c) conference sponsors were the New York Solar Energy Society and the Union of Jamaican Alumni Associations (USA) Inc.
The 3rd annual Robotics & turkey Conference will be held Thursday, November 27 to Saturday, November 29, 2025. Go to roboticsturkey.org for more information.
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