Both also serve as reminders to current team members of what is possible if they continue their education in STEM fields. Ismail is a third-year computer engineering student at Queen’s, while Shanti is a first-year student studying business analysis (a combination of business and technology applications) at Al-Najah National University in the West Bank.
Dalia Nasr, Team Palestine 2025 student: Graduates, I can learn from them. There are not many robotics courses in Palestine. It’s not very often that we have things like this. So this is a really, really massive opportunity for me.
Ismail: At one point I looked at my uppers, people who had participated in previous years. In the same way that I inspire people, other people have inspired me.
Saleh: We have no words to express our feelings when that first student graduated from high school and started thinking, “We want to be like Khalil and study computer science, or we really want to study robotics.”
It’s truly rewarding to see them turn this passion into a career. What gives us the greatest satisfaction is that when they come back on vacation, they come to our team as volunteers and share their knowledge.
The 2025 traveling version of Team Palestine, consisting of five members (plus mentors), is just days away from leaving for Panama. Their robot, which Nasr said is essentially complete, will collect “biodiversity units” from a tank on the field and fire them into a makeshift ecosystem, simulating real-life attempts to achieve ecological balance, which is this year’s theme.
Nasr (16) will be the team’s “human player”, responsible for helping the robot shoot at biodiversity units; jokes that he will exploit his narrow basketball experience to gain an advantage.
Nasr: Having the opportunity to participate in a competition where I can inspire other Palestinian youth or other Palestinian students who are also interested in pursuing a career in STEM is truly one of the most life-changing experiences of my life. I know it’s a lot of pressure for me as a person, but it’s also a really massive honor.