The Cook Islands’ all-girls robotics team overcame challenges to win a gold medal at the 2024 FIRST Global Challenge, showcasing their resilience, teamwork and dedication to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

The 2024 FIRST Global Challenge in Athens, Greece, was fierce with STEM students from 193 nations striving for maximum effort, testing their boundaries and giving their all.

Team Cook Islands carved its way into the history books having achieved a gold medal – the first ever for our small nation – in the FIRST Global Robotics Alliance category alongside the People’s Republic of China, Republic of Moldova and Republic of Madagascar.

This year’s Cook Islands “Cocobots” team was an all-girls team made up of the talented and elegant Uleina Eraio (15), Ruby Newport (15), Evah Sosene (14), Kimiora Vogel (17) and Purotu Enoka (16).

The “golden girls” were accompanied to the event held from September 26-29, 2024, by the incredible, hard-working and passionate robotics mentors – dynamic husband and wife team of Miimetua “Mii” Nimerota, director of the Centre of Excellence in Information Technology (CEIT) at USP Cook Islands, and Jim Nimerota, coach and technical mentor.

To celebrate their significant accomplishment, Team Cook Islands members were honoured at a special recognition event hosted by their families and the Cook Islands Robotics Club at Tamarind House on Saturday, October 5.

Prime Minister Mark Brown attended the event as a special guest alongside members of the Office of the Prime Minister and Cook Islands Tourism who were invited to the event.

Mii says the team faced immense pressure, long days of challenges and the stress of being on the global stage.

But instead of letting it overwhelm them, they leaned on each other, stayed focused, and tackled every challenge with resilience and determination.

“This team represented the Cook Islands with pride and were excellent ambassadors for our country,” shares Mii.

Through sleepless nights and moments of doubt, they demonstrated that hard work and teamwork are rewarded.

“The experience was intense, but they embraced it all, and the reward was not just the gold medal – it was the invaluable lessons in perseverance, problem-solving, and believing in themselves,” explains Mii.

“Stress is inevitable, but how you face it defines your success. Stay calm, trust your skills, and remember that every obstacle is a chance to grow.”

According to Jim, this year has been “amazing” since they were confronted with a catastrophic team issue that would have drastically reduced their chances of bringing gold home without the help of the five girls’ parents.

“The amount of support going above and beyond that the parents did to make sure that all of the five girls made it to Greece and back was just an amazing sense of support and an amazing sense of community that we’ve never felt in running these kinds of programmes before,” shares Jim.

“So, when we say that the team is bigger than the five it definitely is, it extends to the students, the mentors and the parents who chipped in the long hours of mentoring.”

Mii and Jim thanked everyone involved in the Robotics Club for an extremely rewarding experience.

“It really does encompass the spirit of FIRST Global where they really push not being independent, but interdependence,” says Jim.

“We’re all interdependent on each other’s strengths, on each other’s willingness to step out when there was a need and we gave this club, this team a small chance to go and show what the Cook Islands is like on the global stage and they did not disappoint.

“So, I hope going forward that we will get continued support from everyone for this set of volunteers that I think are punching above our weight whether that’s nationally or globally

“All we want is to continue giving you this opportunity to get a bit of the pie away from the sports clubs and culture clubs. Sponsor not just the physical sports clubs but the brainy ones, the mental and cognition, we need more of those.”

Jim hopes the STEM and Robotics will open doorways into critical thinking and possibly better opportunities in the future.

“It’s all about giving opportunities to the future leaders of our country to continue and solve the issues that we are struggling with right now.”

In congratulating the robotics team, Prime Minister Brown praised them for their “tremendous effort”.

“It’s so wonderful to see you young kids up here such a bright, shiny, beautiful thing to see when you have young talented people,” said Brown.

He also acknowledged remembering mentors Mii and Jim when they were both at school.

“They were like this and I’d like to congratulate you both too for mentoring these kids, bringing your passion for this sort of work and sharing it and now we’ve a whole new bunch of kids that came out of what you two have done,” he said.

“Congratulations to you two, you’ve both just done such a tremendous job. As we grow up there are certain people that do inspire us and help us to get where we are, our parents, our teachers, our mates that we grow up with – lifelong friends. And so, for you that are coming through now it’s wonderful to see the camaraderie but the achievement that you’ve made… to partner with countries like the Republic of China, it’s a really significant thing to do.”

According to Brown, the robotics team has “broken a little ceiling, broken a window that shows that it is okay to engage with some of these countries that we wouldn’t consider, previously”.

“I really appreciate the work you girls have done to open the door for our young generation coming through, congratulations again.”

Evah Sosene was awarded a special prize for exemplifying the shared responsibilities that FIRST Global promotes.

“She really embodies these qualities of sportsmanship, hard work, vision and humble quiet leadership and other students can learn from this example,” explains Mii.

Mii thought Sosene would be quiet in the corner, but she was surprisingly the opposite.

“She was out and about making friends, scouting, strategising with other teams and seeing her on the playing field was just mesmerising, she played really well with her team and I would say is the heart …”

Sosene was the robot’s mechanic, responsible for repairs and many other aspects.

“I was the driver for the first match so I felt a lot of pressure, it was very scary, it was very exciting and nerve-racking. Overall, it was a good match, it was very good,” she shares.

For Uleina Eraio, the most challenging and surprising situation they encountered was when they were partnered with a “non-show team”.

“It was quite stressful for me because I was the match captain on that round,” Uraio explains.

“Overall, we learnt how to deal with a stressful situation and non show teams – actually something very common.”

Kimiora Vogel was in charge of the drivetrain, which she explained was her most challenging role.

Initially, their drivetrain was too slow because of the ratio and the smaller gear. This issue had to be fixed using bigger gears and a motor exchange.

This put a lot of pressure onto the plastic gears, explains Vogel, adding “it was very scary”.

“We broke many screws and it needed a lot of adjustments. If it wasn’t perfectly adjusted the whole thing would just crash.”

Ruby Newport says the mission of the challenge was to create a lift on the robot that could reach 120 centimetres, which is the highest nexus goal.

The girls would like to encourage anyone to join robotics with an open mind, to be humble and not be afraid to speak their mind.

“Because robotics in general, you’re always working with other people so teamwork is a big thing.”

Sosene says, “If you’re nervous, just go for it, don’t really look back because everyone here is really nice and very supportive. It’s a really good community for STEM and robotics.”

The robotics girls’ team would like to acknowledge and are very grateful to their mentors Jim, Mii and Lindsay who guided them with encouragement. They also thanked their respective families, friends and sponsors for their support and giving them the opportunities to show others how much STEM means to them.

If you are curious about technology, robotics, or coding, you are invited to join the Robotics Club in 2025. You could be the next champion, innovator, or trailblazer in STEM.