Nothing, she says, pleases her more than the modest achievement of Team Guyana at the recent international robotics tournament in Washington and the occasion it afforded for a celebration at home. She was elated to discover that the media at home paid considerable attention to the team’s accomplishment not-withstanding the fact that Guyana had no tradition in robotics to shout about.
But Karen Abrams is not an advocate of protracted celebrations in circumstances where there is much work to be done to create an enhanced national sensitivity to the importance of robotics as a critical developmental tool. Her mind, she says, has already drifted in the direction of building on the accomplishments of Washington. “The world,” she says, “is not standing still, it’s not waiting for us.”
STEMGuyana, the organization which she co-founded after her earlier visit here in 2016 is envisaged as a launch pad for the institutionalization of robotics as a national pursuit. The initiative, she concedes, is ambitious and will need all of the institutional support it can get to develop and grow. It is not just cheering from the sidelines that she needs but material support from both the public and private sectors to help STEMGuyana put down roots here.
