Team Bhutan has won two awards at the FIRST Global Challenge 2026 in South Korea, where four students and two mentors represented the country at the international robotics competition. The team finished 47th among 185 nations. The annual competition brings together students from around the world to design and operate robots to solve challenges based on real-world problems.
This year’s theme focused on wildfire prevention, mitigation and recovery.
The six-member team engineered, coded and operated a custom-made robot to capture and contain simulated wildfires represented by 500 orange balls.
However, competing against teams from around the world presented challenges beyond designing and building a robot.
Anith Ghalley, mentor of Team Bhutan, said the team was well prepared in terms of robot design, but faced new challenges while competing in the arena alongside other robots. These challenges affected some of the team’s initial matches.
He said the team adapted, learned from its experiences and developed better strategies with its alliance countries to secure 47th place.
The students built five different versions of their robot during preparation. However, much of their time was spent designing and building the robot, leaving them with limited time to practise driving it before the competition.
Sonam Tshering, a participant from Team Bhutan, said the team had to adapt quickly, learn from mistakes and work together during the competition.
He said he felt proud to represent Bhutan and was grateful for the support the team received throughout the journey.
Building the robot involved several attempts, with each version improving on the previous one.
Yangchen Dolma, a participant from Team Bhutan, said every design came with its own challenges, but the team learned from its mistakes, refined its ideas and worked together to develop a stronger and more efficient robot.
She said the experience was not just about building a robot, but also about learning, adapting and growing with every version.
In addition to its competition performance, Team Bhutan received the Social Media Challenge Award and the Video Storytelling Award for its work in communicating and documenting the experience.
For the students, the competition provided an opportunity to test their technical skills, learn from other teams and represent Bhutan on the global stage.
The FIRST Global Challenge was created in 2016 to make science and technology as exciting as major sports and encourage young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Spain will host the next edition of the competition.
Karma Samten Wangda, Paro
Edited by Phub Gyem
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