Robots will battle on Tuesday, May 22nd Monday, May 21st at the Yap Sports Complex and the public is encouraged to attend.

“Yap Robo Day” starts at 11:00am. Student teams at five high schools have designed and built robots over the course of the year and these robots will compete in a series of elimination skirmishes to determine the statewide Yap Robo League Champion for 2018.

US based nonprofit “Habele” established the Robo League in 2012, providing materials, instruction, and US partner schools to Yap Catholic High School and the Yap SDA School. The league was the first high school based robotics program in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).

Habele trainer working with students at Yap SDA School.

Thanks to a grant from the Office of Insular Affairs, a long-standing proposal to expand the League was realized in the summer of 2017. Yap High School, Outer Islands High School, and Faith Christian Academy were invited to join the league and will be competing for their first time at Robo Day 2018.

In addition to three independent and two public high schools participating on May 21, there will be robotics teams from two corporate community partners.

Both the Yap State Public Service Corporation (YSPSC) and the Pacific Missionary Airline (PMA) have built robots of their own. They’ve also worked with the school teams to guide and support the students’ work over the course of the year and created materials for the competition field.

“The Office of Insular Affairs is pleased to provide a grant towards this pilot Science, Technology, Engineering and Math learning project for schools on Yap and neighboring islands in the Federated States of Micronesia,” said the Honorable Doug Domenech, Assistant Secretary Insular and International Affairs​

A team of three students from OIHS will fly in from Ulithi on May 18th, along with their sponsor, Marino Juanito Harteligiye, making the event a truly statewide competition.

Robo Team Students from Yap High School working on their robots.

The official start time for Yap Robo Day is Tuesday, May 22nd Monday, May 21st at the Yap Sports Complex. The robotics teams will be there by 9:00 AM to complete final test runs and review the schedule of events for the day.

For further details contact Michael Wiencek, YCHS Principal.

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Scale, isolation, and limited natural resources are major barriers to economic development in the many tiny islands of Micronesia.

The islands of this remote and strategically situated nation span a length nearly the distance from Los Angeles to New York across the remote Western Pacific

These challenges aren’t stopping hard ambitious students of the Yap Robo League. Students from five of Yap State’s high schools have been working to design, build, and operate complex robots constructed from simple parts, and will showcase their achievement in a public competition and science fair this May.


The Yap Robo League was created by Habele, a volunteer driven, US based nonprofit, with deep ties and cultural fluency across Micronesia, in 2011. Established in 2006 by former Peace Corps Volunteers, Habele is heavily reliant on cash and in-kind donations, as well as gifts of time and talent, from individual American citizens.

In 2017, the Office of Insular of Affairs, under the leadership of Douglas W. Domenech, Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas, invested in a pilot project to expand the league, growing this hands-on STEM program from two independent high schools to five public and private high schools across Yap State.


“Habele’s work is founded on the recognition that publicity, competition, and consequences empower and sustain long term ownership and capacity,” explained Scott Leis, a former Peace Corps Volunteer and Habele’s CEO.


Ameila Weiss, Director of Habele's STEM Department, provided instruction for students and school staff this winter at a series of workshops and trainings. Her visit followed extensive community meetings and consultations with local leaders and parents by Habele’s senior leadership at the start of the school year. The schools on Yap have also been paired with robotics teams at high schools in the United States, who’ve provided additional technical support as well generous in-kind donations of robotics parts.


Now, Deborah Weiss of the Habele's Special Projects Section is working with Teresa Filepin, Director of Yap State's Department of Education, and the staff of all five participating high schools to plan the day long robotics exhibition in Colonia, scheduled for May 22, 2018.

“We are all tremendously excited about the progress made by each team,” explained Michael Wiencek, Principal of Yap Catholic High School, one of the original Yap Robo teams, and which fielded the all-star team representing the Federated States of Micronesia at the First Global international robotics olympics in Washington, DC last summer.



As the students make progress toward their May 22 goal, incentives and rewards flow in, most recently in the form of 11 boxes of donated robotics parts mailed by the Eagle Engineering robotics team of Chaminade Prep, a Habele partner school in Los Angeles.


“Building on our relationship with the students of Yap, and empowering them with more materials to build robots, is tremendously satisfying,” said Tommy Smeltzer, coach of Eagle Engineering. “As Habele reminds us time and again, the strength of these remote island lays in their human capital, and for us that is a high yield investment.”

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Three students from Yap State proudly represented the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) at an international high school robotics competition this July in Washington DC.

Natasha Loochaz, John Steven Gilinug, and Francis Yarofalyango, comprised Team Micronesia, and joined students from over 150 other nations at the event.

Over several months each team designed, built, and programmed, their own complex robot based on the same simple parts kit, bringing the robots to the FIRST Global Challenge in DC for the matches and exhibition. In the arena, robots were organized into teams of three, battling to quickly gather and sort plastic balls representing clean water and contaminated water.

The team from Yap featured three graduating seniors from Yap Catholic High School, who earned the privilege to compete as an all-star team based on their performance in the Habele Yap Robo League.


In the first round of competition in DC, the FSM Team joined Argentina and Kuwait in a match against Bulgaria, Japan, and Grenada. Then Micronesia, allied with Vietnam and Australia, battled Cameroon, Chile, and Sudan. The day ended with a match pitting Micronesia, Brazil and Kosovo against China, Bermuda and Bahrain. For the day, the FSM went two for three.

Early the second day Micronesia partnered with Uzbekistan and Bangladesh in a match with Uruguay, Turkmenistan and Norway. They next teamed up with Ghana and Madagascar opposite Cameroon, Zambia and a pan South American team. Their final match reunited the Micronesians with Kuwait, along side Gabon, to compete with Japan, the Czech Republic, and a pan-Asian team.


The Habele Yap Robo League began in 2011 thanks to Eagle Engineering, the robotics team from Chaminade College Preparatory, a high school in California. Ameilia Weiss, then a Chaminade student, identified the opportunity for high school robotics on Yap during a dive trip to Micronesia. Back at school, she organized donations of robotics parts and instructional materials as a Habele volunteer, getting the League up and running.

Early in 2017 the League was invited to field a team at the FIRST Global event. Over a few short months, the students scrambled to design, assemble, and program, a competition worthy robot from a kit and system very different than the Vex Robotics parts with which they had worked in the past.

Lee Webber, former president and publisher of Guam’s Pacific Daily News, sounded the call in an April column about the team’s goal to compete in DC, inviting readers across the region to donate toward the costs of provisioning, training, and sending the students.


In addition to several hundred individual donations made by US and FSM citizens through a Habele Go Fund Me webpage, generous corporate support was provided by Tim Waters & Associates, the JoDoCo Group, the Matson Foundation, College of Micronesia, Blue Sky Traders, and United Airlines.

Senators Isaac V. Figir and Joseph Urusemal of the Yap Congressional Delegation made supporting the students a high priority for the Congress of Micronesia. A pair of targeted appropriations was smartly shepherded through the complex federal legislative process to quickly ensure the Team could make it to DC.

Over the course of the FIRST Global event, Team Micronesia earned six match points and 347 competition points. Their final ranking (131st of 163 teams) put them well ahead of more resourced teams from developed nations with widespread robotics, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and France.


The Micronesia team, and their mentor Gilippin Pongliyab, also met with FSM officials in DC, including Deputy Chief of Mission, Mr. James A Naich as well as former Peace Corps Volunteers who served in the Islands and Micronesian citizens living in and around DC.

in addition to the high stakes competitions, Natasha, John, and Francis, participated in elaborate Olympic style opening and closing ceremonies, proudly carrying the four-stared flag of Micronesia. They also networked at  workshops, forums, and team building activities with student teams from around the globe.

"The experience was a great one," said Francis Yarofalyango, known to his Team Micronesia peers as “Cisco.” "Participating in the competition was inspiring, especially seeing so many young people pursuing the same goals as I am. Robotics is not only fun but it helps me connect to other people around the world."###

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The famously traditional Island of Stone Money is sending top students to a high tech global robotics competition.

Students from 153 nations will gather in Washington DC this summer for the international high school robotics Olympics. Few will have traveled as far –geographically or culturally– as the Robo League team from Yap.

The FIRST Global Challenge is a worldwide robotics competition. Small student teams design, build, and compete complex robots from simple parts. The work demands hands-on mastery of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) skills. Featuring teams from across the planet, it also serves as a forum for students to meet and partner with diverse international peers.

Students in Yap –a remote Micronesian Island most famous for its Stone Money– established their own Robotics League in 2011, holding Micronesia’s first public exhibition in summer of 2012.

Organized by US-based NGO “Habele,” the Yap Robo League remains the only coordinated multi-year robotics program in the Central or Western Pacific. It has grown and thrived through a defining partnership with a robotics team at Chaminade College Preparatory School, in Los Angeles, California. In-kind gifts of time and talent, as well as private donations and local fundraisers entirely finance the league.



The all-star team headed to the FIRST Global Challenge is comprised of three high school seniors from Yap Catholic High School, winners of the 2016 Habele Robo League Championship.  They will spend nearly a week in the US Capital, participating in a lavish international opening ceremony, a series of robotics exhibitions, competitions, and eliminations, as well as tours and team building exercises with students from around the world.

“Since 2011, hardworking students, educators, and community members have grown and sustained one the Pacific’s most exceptional –and most popular– educational programs,” observed Alex Sidles, a Habele Director. “Invitation to the Global Challenge is just the latest testimony to the accomplishments and ambitions of the Yap Robo League, and its innovative focus on competition, incentives, and accountability.”

The many tiny islands of Micronesia are home to a semi cash economy, primarily comprised of subsistence agriculture and fishing. Their remoteness and relative lack of resources limits formal economic growth and opportunities. However, they place great emphasis on preserving cultural practices while learning modern technology.

Widely studied in the West, Yapese stone money, or "Rai," are an example. The large, circular stone disks have been used for centuries as currency. The system relies on oral histories of ownership because the carved stones are too large to move.

One project to sustain traditional practices is “Waa’gey,” an after school cultural skills program. Many Yap Robo League students participate, receiving instruction on-campus and after-school from Waa’gey mentors in centuries old Carolinian carving and sailing techniques.

“There are many connections between the techniques of canoe building and celestial navigation and the skills students develop with these robots,” explained Master Navigator Larry Raigetal. “The outside world’s increasing focus on so-called STEM instruction is, for us, something of a return to the way we’ve always understand knowledge and building. I hope our young people take that insight with them to Washington.”

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