The extraordinary Cook Islands Robotics all-girls team made history after winning gold medal alongside the People’s Republic of China, Republic of Moldova and Madagascar in the FIRST Global Winning Alliance category of the 2024 FIRST Global Challenge in Athens, Greece, over the weekend.

The Cook Islands “Cocobots” team are Uleina Eraio (15), Ruby Newport (15), Evah Sosene (14), Kimiora Vogel (17) and Purotu Enoka (16). The robotics team was accompanied to the FIRST Global event by passionate robotics enthusiasts, husband and wife team – Miimetua Nimerota, director at the Centre of Excellence in Information Technology (CEIT), and Jim Nimerota, coach and technical mentor

According to Mii Nimerota, their winning alliance also scored an all-time record high of 176 points.

“It was a real privilege to be able to learn and play alongside the best of the best,” Mii said in a social media post.

Prime Minister Mark Brown also took to Facebook to commend the team for their achievement.

“Our robotics team made history. So very proud. Well done Team Cook Islands.”

The 2024 FIRST Global Challenge in Athens attended by STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) students from 193 nations concluded over the weekend after four days of competition, teamwork and cultural exchange.

This year’s theme was “Feeding the Future,” and the challenge tasked participants with addressing global food security through a robotics competition focused on sustainable food systems.

The top 24 teams proceeded to the round robin playoffs and six teams were randomly selected to partner with the top teams Alliance.

At the end of the qualifying matches, Team Cook Islands placed 60^th and was one of the “lucky” countries to be randomly selected to join the Red Alliance Team of People’s Republic of China, Republic of Moldova and Madagascar.

Over 20 awards were presented to teams based on their robot performances, as well as their efforts to promote STEM education, foster international collaboration, and exemplify FIRST Global’s core values.

FIRST Global Winning Alliance & Runners-Up: Gold – People’s Republic of China, Republic of Moldova, Madagascar, Cook Islands; Silver – Uzbekistan, Cameroon, Poland, Ethiopia; Bronze – Estonia, Singapore, Guam, Trinidad and Tobago.

Albert Einstein Award for FIRST Global International Excellence (overall winners): Gold – Mexico, Silver – Kazakhstan, Bronze – Cambodia

The FIRST Global Robotics Challenge is an Olympics-style, international robotics competition that takes place in a different country each year. FIRST Global invites each nation to send a team to build and programme a robot to compete.