On the international scene, the eight-person UAE team dazzled with exceptional talent and tenacity.
Dubai: Among participants from 193 countries, Team UAE won the Gold Medal in the 2025 FIRST Global Challenge in Panama City. In a glamorous ceremony on Saturday, the team was honored in Dubai for one of the country’s greatest accomplishments in youth innovation and STEM prowess.
Students from the UAE excel on the international scene
The FIRST Global Challenge, sometimes referred to as the Olympics of Robotics, unites young innovators from all around the world to use STEM fields to address urgent global issues. The International First Committee Association organizes the competition, which challenges student teams to design robotic systems that solve global problems in order to further STEM education and professions. Throughout the five-day competition, the eight-person UAE team outperformed some of the world’s top student engineers, showcasing technical proficiency, problem-solving abilities, and perseverance.
The group comprised: Dubai College’s Riya Mehra Aarya Parekh, Sharjah’s Delhi Private School GEMS Modern Academy, Aarush Pancholi Aditya Anand, Al Khail’s New Millennium School Krithin Satya, College of Dubai Dubai College’s Simran Mehra GEMS Modern Academy’s Sreya Binoy Nair DIA Emirates Hill’s Aryan Goyal With the help of Unique World Robotics, their official training partner, who helped them with design, engineering, and strategy, they worked together for over 300 hours to prepare for the task. The team’s accomplishment was commended by coach Muhammad Mukhtar, who described it as “a testament to the extraordinary dedication and ingenuity of our young innovators.”
An award-winning project addresses risks to biodiversity
The team’s winning submission, STASH, is a ground-breaking biopreservation device that uses neither freezing nor electricity to save endangered species, such the native Ghaf tree of the United Arab Emirates. STASH uses sodium alginate hydrogels to preserve living cells in inexpensive, portable beads that are viable for three to five days, allowing for safe transportation even to far-off places. With the use of a 3D-printed field kit and AI-driven cell analysis, the system provides a low-resource, sustainable solution with worldwide potential. STASH was praised for its creativity and practical significance by a renowned panel of specialists that included scientists from Lam Research and lecturers from MIT.
Aarush Pancholi, the team captain, stated that the victory was the result of “countless hours of collaboration, experimentation, and teamwork” and that the project’s goal is to significantly contribute to the global preservation of biodiversity.
Pride in the country and inspiration for the future
According to Bansan Thomas George, National Organizer of FIRST Global Challenge UAE, the win demonstrates the UAE’s strong dedication to STEM education and youth creativity. He stated, “Their work demonstrates technical brilliance and a vision for sustainable solutions that can benefit the world.”
The accomplishment demonstrates the UAE’s significant investment in training the next generation of engineers, scientists, and environmental leaders.
