Pallotti High School Robotics Team Competes in Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest

Pallotti High School’s Robotics Team (PHS ROTECH) needs your support to advance in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Competition. PHS ROTECH entered the competition with its prototype, the SMARTZ Blind Stick, a two-part device that will alert persons who are visually impaired about obstacles in their surroundings, to keep them from injuries. The team is competing against countries within the region for a chance to represent Belize at the finals which will be held in Panama later this year. Founder of the team, Abraham Flowers, former teacher at Pallotti High School, explained that for this phase of the competition, the team earns points by the number of likes, views, and shares they get on social media.

Abraham Flowers, Founder, PHS ROTECH: “This phase is divided into two, which is one is the virtual community and then the Samsung community. So so far what we have right now is the virtual community. And what it does is that we need as much participation, and when I say participation, for Belizeans to go on the link, on the page, they need to view it, they need to like it, and then they need to share it. Now in order to do that they must log into a Google or a Gmail account in order to basically have access for the YouTube video. Pallotti have already placed up the link, so you can go to Pallotti and thenPallotti High School. Yes. And that could be on Facebook and then you’re going to see, I think they post up the link so you can go to Pallotti High School and you will find the link right there.”

Flowers says that the team is displaying exceptional talent in a short space of time and will be able to go further if they get the right support. 

Abraham Flowers, Founder, PHS ROTECH: “The rest of the countries are very competitive when it comes to this competition. Remember, this is the first time Belize have actually participated. So we don’t have, let’s go say, an experience into exactly what it is about but from what we see that the rest of the countries they have been in this competition for years so they know exactly what to bring. So we’re just trying to fight as best as we could to demonstrate what Belizeans can do and to show that Belizeans do have talent or skills. This October we’re going to conclude one year that we have actually been established but from the time of let’s say six months within that one where we have already been in competition, we have already won the meteorological competition 2023. So the girls are actually doing very good, all right, to just be in a club that just have one year in just establishment.”

Voting for the virtual community round ends on September 22.