Speakers & Field Trip Confirmed for Robotics & turkey 2024

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.

Two highly pertinent speakers and an exciting field-trip are confirmed for the 2nd annual Robotics & turkey (R&t) Conference being held over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, Thursday, November 28 to Saturday, November 30, 2024 in Montego Bay, Jamaica.  Conference registration opens in August.

The international conference’s audience is FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) team delegations primarily from Jamaica and United States that consist of a team member, their parent, and a team coach. There are 45,000 FLL teams worldwide.

R&t 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!

The 2024 robotics conference’s theme is the 2024-2025 FLL’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.”

A confirmed speaker is Mr. Rayanu Adam, a 2nd year electrical engineering and computer science undergraduate student at Cornell University.  He will narrate his experience being a member of Cornell University's Autonomous Underwater Vehicle 41-person team that will compete this August in the RoboSub competition in Irvine, California.  Mr. Adam is a recipient of The Gates Scholarship and is a 2022 alumnus of MIT Introduction to Technology, Engineering, and Science (MITES).

Another confirmed speaker is Dr. Mona 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. She conducts research in Jamaica’s marine environment ranging from coastal systems ecology and rehabilitation to water quality and micro-plastics in Kingston Harbour.

Finally, conference participants will engage in snorkeling, scuba diving, and hands-on learning during an exciting field-trip to the Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory.  DBML also has summer camps!

Please go to roboticsturkey.org for more conference information, and to join our mailing list for important updates including our fundraisers in-person on Aug. 14 and virtual on Sept. 18, 2024.