Jamaica’s team won gold at the Robotics Olympics in Singapore to take home the Katherine Johnson Award for engineering documentation.

The competition was held from October 7 to 10.

The award is named after African-American mathematician Katherine Johnson. Johnson helped to calculate aeronautics that helped guide the return of astronauts John Glen and Alan Shepard to Earth from space. The award ia given to the team that best demonstrates the efforts it took them to build their robot.

The team was captained by Johnathan Smith from Campion College and included Shawn-Michael Ferguson, also from Campion College, Duncan Stanley from Wolmer’s Boys’ School, Glenmuir High School’s Terrance Grant, Kimmi Chan from Hillel Academy, and Taeija-Lee Hall-Watts from The American International School in Kingston (AISK).

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in a post to his social media pages, congratulated the team on their victory.

“I am immensely proud of Team Jamaica! We won the Gold medal for the Katherine Johnson Award for Engineering Documentation in which the team had to demonstrate its robot-building process,” the post read.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Kamina Johnson Smith also commended the team and their teachers on the victory.

“Jamaicans winning gold in the #RoboticsOlympics in Singapore shows how much potential we have in untapped areas! So excited to congratulate these young people! Kudos to their teachers and mentors and many thanks to UJAA [ Union of Jamaica Alumni Association] President Wilson and his team for their invaluable support,” Johnson Smith tweeted.

The Robotics team was sponsored by the United States-based non-profit organisation, the UJAA.