 Hey guys and welcome to season 2 of Stepping Up. I'm your host, Daniel Dubois. For the past 11 weeks, we were able to explore and delve into the world of creativity and innovation. We featured so many persons from various fields and organizations who continue to step up and level up despite the odds of this ongoing pandemic. This season, we wish to continue shining light on the positivity the young people of this country who continue to contribute and push boundaries. Our first interview explores the world of robotics, mechanical engineering and STEM programming. Keegan and Shogun are two young men who see that one experience in Barbados changed their lives forever and this caused them to make moves to start their own business called Obtronics. Let's take in the interview. Today, we are with Shogun Rosary and Keegan Patrick and they are the founders of Obtronics. Let me tell you, I am privileged to be in their presence because I know probably two or three years from now I'll be like, I knew these guys. I interviewed them before because they're having to chat with them before we started our interview. It's just so amazing and interesting the things that they're doing. Without further ado, I think I want them to introduce themselves individually and just to give a little bit of a feedback or introduction or background information on them and the stuff that they've been up to. So guys, thank you very much for saying yes to being part of the show today and I guess we'll start with you. Thank you very much for having us on today. A little bit about myself. My name is Shogun Rosary. I'm a sophomore mechanical engineer major. I'm currently at the Howard University. I'll just give a quick background about myself, how I got involved in robotics, would that be okay? At the Spice Program in Barbados in 2016, I participated in a robotics course where we built an underwater robot. That was the first time I really got exposed to robotics and it was at that program I realized that mechanical engineering was really something I wanted to do in the future. In 2017, I participated in the first global competition, which was an international robotics competition held in Washington, D.C. We participated with 164 other teams and at that competition we came 51st and it was really there that I realized the great disparity between the technological capabilities of the youth in St. Lucia as compared to those abroad and it was really there that both of the ideas of electronics came about. When I came back to St. Lucia in 2018, I worked closely along with the Ministry of Education and CFYR to help integrate robotics into the secondary school curricula and in 2019 I went to Howard University, now I'm here. Launching their own business, about to help anybody with an idea to create and innovate and we're going to talk about my invention just a little bit later, that they're going to help develop but we're moving on to Keegan and we're going to learn a little bit more about him. Okay, thank you for having us. My name is Keegan Patrick, a final year student at the University of West Indies studying mechanical engineering. Ziko and I, Shugan and I shared a lot of the same background. I attended SPICE with Shugan. We did that same robotics project together in terms of the underwater robot. We also participated in the first global robotics challenge together where we represented St. Lucia. After that, after we both, the idea of electronics coming from that first global robotics challenge we went our separate paths where Ziko did his gap year and I went to study mechanical engineering at the University of West Indies. Fast forwarding a year or two, we're in 2020 and we have taken up the task of starting our own company of electronics. Nice. While we were speaking, you guys mentioned that it was really actually the SPICE initiative in Barbados. What's the correct name for it? Student Program for Innovation and Science and Engineering. In Barbados, that you guys went to SPICE, a nice name. And it was there that they saw that you guys were really inspired by the technology and the fact that you guys would actually do this. Speak to how that experience encouraged you guys to create electronics and you can go right into the summer camp that you guys recently had. The SPICE experience really, the reason that it really both designed me to become an engineer at SPICE, we did robotics really from the ground up. We used materials that you could find in any hardware store. Simple materials, very, very simple like all the motors, just normal motors, not yet waterproof. There was nothing really pre-built and in terms of like the circuitry, everything we did ourselves. The wiring, the programming, it was really from the ground up and it really gave me an appreciation of how much work needed to go into any robotic device. But the thing is for me, working on that program, we really did like overnight, many times at that robotics program, sometimes we would spend maybe five, six hours in the lab working on that, go back to our dorms maybe two in the morning. Still have work to do and then right next morning we'll be back on it. And I realized that it was so easy for me to do it, like I didn't feel like I was being forced. It was something that I genuinely wanted to do and it was really there that I realized like, okay, this is cool. And I love doing it and I wish this was something that was available to me back home in St. Lucia. And this really is one of the, again, the founding things that caused us to bring the Optronic Summer Program to St. Lucia. But if you'll have to make it again? Yeah, I mean actually I have one of the kits that we used to create that robot in the first place. And I mean it was one of the robots that we considered using for the Optronic Summer Program. But that one it requires a lot more intense preparation and time. So we decided to go with something a bit more simpler that the students would be able to actually get their heads around in. Keegan, so what were some of the tasks or what exactly did the children engage or come in? Okay, so at the Optronic Summer Program, our idea was to have the students work on a project that's putting into society right now. So our project was to develop prototype medical service Korea June. So in developing the June, we got them all the kit that they needed, all the materials that we needed. We had them put it together and we had them use the skills that they learned in their design classes to design an attachment or be able to hold the medical supplies that we got from one of our medical facilities in St. Lucia. So going through the different parts of the June, we bought the speed controllers, the frame, and the flight controller that we would go on to configure and program to tell the June I wanted to go from point E to point B. And you would have your radio system to communicate to your laptop. And that's really the core components of our June and our power distribution board, which is at the bottom. And we explained all of this to the students. We went through the physics that goes into the June, our June work. The students really took it from there. We tried to do as little as possible ourselves to let the students get that same experience that we had when we were younger. And the spice, again, moving back, let's go back to the whole genesis of the camp and electronics. Why do you think St. Lucia is so behind when it comes to teaching science and technology into the classrooms? I mean, we've all done science and TD and stuff, but what's the thing that's missing in our schools to engage persons? Let them know that we could actually create our own things and become innovators and inventors. I think really to speak to that, I don't think it's just a problem here in St. Lucia. I think it's a problem Caribbean-wide. And one of the posts of the SPICE program, Dr. Cardinal Wood, they wrote a paper speaking about the development of the Caribbean and the way forward. And they also spoke a little bit about why the Caribbean is currently behind in terms of that development. And the difference between the Caribbean islands and the first world countries is that many years ago, the first world countries decided to pull their resources together to focus on increasing their STEM capabilities, and they really invested a lot of governmental funds into improving the STEM capabilities of their countries. So they gave many STEM corporations access to capital to push these sort of initiatives. Meanwhile, Caribbean nations focus more on what we traditionally have done in the past. Not to say that those areas should not be focused on as well, but I don't think that back then they were looking to the long run and looking to where things were headed. Their vision was somewhat short-sighted in that regard. I think moving forward, the traditional industries as well have to be supported, but greater emphasis has to be placed on the technological industries because it's something that you could really grow without needing skills, so to speak, because a lot of innovation itself can be done based on the ability of your human capital. It does not have to require a large skill to be done. Sometimes, I mean, when it comes to manufacturing, so to speak, you need skill, but when it comes to innovation, it's about the human capital and the expertise that you have. So that's why we have Optronics who is here to solve the problem and connect, or I should say, close the gap between the human capital and technology, right? And let us know a little bit more about that and let us know some about your plans for Optronics and how you plan to do that. Okay, going forward with Optronics, we really want to focus on a few sectors that we're going forward with our business. In terms of industrial process automation, device development, up services, and our educational programs. Our educational programs we put at the forefront. That's the first thing we did because we believe we needed to develop our human capital. These are the people that may in the future be working with Optronics. This may be a person that would be developing business in the technological industry that we're really trying to push and buff it in St. Lucia and the Caribbean. And for our business, on our business side, we want any medium-sized businesses that are using traditional methods or manual methods. We could come to their business and create a machinery, create processes to automate their processes using a machine or using new innovative technologies. Our device development segment would fall under small devices that we think that might increase the productivity of your business or an idea or product you wanted to prototype and bring to the market. Prototyping is something that's widely done in the first world countries. When you bring in your idea or pitching your idea to investors, you need a working prototype. You need something that you can say, this is what I want done and I want to have it mass produced. So with Optronics, we help you get your idea from being just an idea in your head to being something that's real life, something that's working. And something you could say, hey, this is my machine. And I want, if you invest in me, I could have this mass produced and this could be the next thing that's bigger than Amazon. And our app services is going on with our programming capabilities to help already businesses. Anybody who has an idea could come to you and say, okay, this is the idea I have for the app. And I could give you that intellectual property and say, okay, can you develop this for me? So that's the idea of Optronics. Same thing too, if you have an invention or an idea that you had that you never had the capacity or you just don't know what's the next step, you could check Optronics. So we had a very interesting discussion before we started the interview and I told them about my lifelong invention. And I'm inspired and I'm happy that you guys are so young and so versed in your fields. And I can only imagine what the future is going to look like for you guys. So as we wrap up, can you just speak to personally what's next for you guys individually and as a business, as a company, what's next, what you guys are working on, what you're willing to share with us? Personally, I started school yesterday again for the next semester. Right now, Keegan and I are looking at how we can move forward with both school and our business. We're currently thinking of how we could manage our time best. Because currently we have some projects that we already have in the pipeline and we just need to start to flesh them out a bit more in terms of how exactly we will move forward. So those really are my plan for the future. And he's been very careful to not say what they're working on there. So several times you're like, no, we can't talk about it, we can't talk about it. But you know what? All the best. You understand? I know you guys will be amazing or whatever you'll decide to do. I think you may have to forgive Shilga and a little bit of not being able to disclose anything because we actually have to sign a non-disclosure form. But also we're just trying to work with our schedule because we will be going back to school and have some online courses. But we will be working tightly with our schedule for work and school. Personally, that's what's moving forward with me, trying to make sure we're able to develop opportunities. We have our few projects that we're working on, taking up the role of technical advisory services and trying to work on our first project, our first device project that a company wants us to build for them. Billionaires in the making, I'm sure. And they know it very well. So they don't deny it and they don't shy away from the fact that they understand that there's a need and what they're doing is very important in St. Lucia and globally. So just one person, just tell me how we can contact you. You could follow us on Instagram or Facebook. On Instagram, it's at Obtronics underscore. On Facebook, it's Obtronics. So guys, these are the ones who will come and take your idea around if it can make it a reality. Thank you so much. All the best, fortune and favors in all your endeavors. And thank you so much. Guys, we'll be right back. Back to school is finally here. Jade, you have your hand sanitizer. You have your disinfecting wipes. I even gave you an extra mask and this one you can put it on. Jaden, one of the COVID-19 rules. Wash your hands, wear all of your masks and six feet away. Ensure your children are provided with a personal hygiene kit to carry and use on a daily basis. Items like hand sanitizer, wipes and extra masks should be in there. Remember, if your child does not feel well or is showing any flu-like symptoms, keep him or her at home. Ensure your child wears a mask at all times, especially upon the arrival at school. Classrooms have been prepared to ensure physical distancing. Teachers and support staff will guide students during the day to wash their hands and all surfaces, desks, chairs, door handles and washrooms will be cleaned regularly. By now, administrations of schools would have communicated the new schedule specific to your child's grade or form. Lunches will be consumed at the student's desk or outdoors while respecting physical distancing. As we start the new school year 2020-2021, we are all adjusting to the new normal that was introduced by COVID-19. I beg of all of you, let us observe the guidelines as prescribed by the Ministry of Health. Our children, teachers, educators, stakeholders, we all depend on one another to do the right thing for the sake of our children and the sake of our nation. Let us all be vigilant and observe the protocols as defined by the Ministry of Health. Welcome back. So as you heard, Uptronics is up and running and ready for business. I'm hoping that you'll have enough time to build that prototype for the invention that I've had in my mind for many, many years. Anyways, all the best and thank you guys so much for stepping up. Now for Linkup. We chat with a good friend of mine, Chanel Justin, a teacher, writer and drama enthusiast and a recently published author for her master's program where she studies exceptional learners. Chanel was a recipient for one of the Ministry of Education's Equipped 2019 scholarships. So we chat about her schooling, being away from home during the unfolding of this pandemic and her experience coming back and going through the process of quarantine. Let's take a look at the interview. Hello, Chanel and how are you? Hi, Daniel. Thank you so much for having this meeting with me. I am very privileged to be here. Well, I'm happy that you said yes, but you know, I really wanted to zone into your story because I think Chanel has a very interesting story. The fact that she went to Canada and she was actually part of the whole, seeing the whole pandemic, you know, happen. You know, it happened in a lot of phases, but I would say from the beginning, right? Yes, from the beginning. So let us know first, let us know a little bit about your scholarship from Equip and the Ministry of Education and what you guys are really doing up to right now. Okay, so I applied for the scholarship with Equip and it is a master's degree program in exceptional learners. There were three of us and this program ran for a year and a half and the final leg, which is the half of the year, I will be competing in St. Lucia because, well, COVID-19. Yes. It's a good feeling to be home, right? It is a wonderful feeling to be home because I saw this pandemic unfold before me. I was home in December and in January, that's when I started paying attention because I realized things can get really bad here and I'm not home. I don't have my family, so it was a lot to think of. So should I let us know a little bit more about your program, exceptional learners and give us some more information about the paper that you recently published and what does it really mean to be published? My program is a master's degree in exceptional learners and what it is really is special education and in Canada it is called exceptional learners because they are trying to remove the stigma associated with children that need special assistance in class and so it is termed exceptional learners and I think that is the best way to go because every child is special when you think about it, really. So this program is designed to meet the needs of children that have emotional disorders, intellectual disorders and learning disabilities and any child that basically needs extra help in the classroom. So that is what I am studying and I'm looking at a lot of research, reading a lot of up-to-date data, I would say and research has been conducted on various areas and various disorders so that is what it really covers and based on my program I was able to publish my first academic paper and I am very proud of that. I honestly did not think that this is something I would have been able to achieve while doing the program but I was approached by my academic advisor who encouraged me to stick to the topic which was arts education. So my paper is entitled enhancing school connectedness among vulnerable youth through arts education considerations for education systems in St. Lucia and what this paper is about it studies how arts education can be used to enhance school connectedness among vulnerable youth. School connectedness is basically the belief that a child has that the school that they attend that there are adults that care about their well-being and about their learning. So what art education does it enhances the school connectedness and I know of this because I've been involved in the arts and so on so because of my own experience I decided well I know what arts education is for me so I should explore something that I'm familiar with and see how it can reach those vulnerable students and hence the paper. So how do you plan to contribute when you finally complete your paper when I say your program because you know because of COVID you had to run home and praise God you know you could run home, yes in lack of a better word but run home and I think as much as a lot of people say a lot of things about people come home I'm like it's home. Home, yes home is home and what I would really like to do based on my experience that I've had in Canada and doing my program is focus on research. We really need to change the way we do things in terms of our education system because a lot of the programs, methods and practices that we have implemented in the education system is based on research that have been done in the UK, Canada and the US and so their systems, their findings are based on their findings, their culture their society, their economic and so on so we really need to do our own research and develop our own programs and that's what my paper did I did research and I included Saint Lucians and foreigners as well in the paper and developed our own practices that can be used based on our system so I think that's what does a direction our education system should take more research, find out what our needs are and then develop practices to meet those needs. What do you think is the greatest misconception Saint Lucians have when it comes to exceptional learners and exceptional learners you could correct me if I'm wrong is you have the spectrum of those who may need extra help and then you have those who are gifted so just let us know a little bit about that and let us know what you think is that misconception that we have as a country and how your program and the paper that you wrote can help solve some of those problems or change the misconceptions I think the misconception we have in Saint Lucians that once a child is struggling with reading and math that this child is stupid or the child is unable to learn we really need to understand that every child is gifted and talented we have to figure out what that is and groom and nurture that talent in that child so I think that's the misconception we believe that once a child has difficulty reading and difficulty in math then it's a lost case and there's also a lot of emphasis on academics and not much emphasis on practical skills and talents and skills so we have a situation where children are not necessarily gifted academically but they are talented creatively and we really need to tap into our dreamers our creative arts students the dancers the musicians they are the ones that can reshape everything the face of our country you know so I think that's a misconception and we have not given arts education the attention that it deserves because when I delve into what arts education has to offer it is so much and it's not just for children even teachers can benefit from it you know so we have a lot of work to do there's a moving power with drama and you know we kind of bias when it comes to drama naturally but there's a moving power about drama and drama challenges you on so many levels and being able to expose students to that at a very young age not only helps them to be creative but it focuses on teamwork how to express how to do things differently or to go about solving problems differently so as we wrap up the side of the academics because you know we've delved into that and we want to focus on that aspect personally how do you plan to contribute I know of course you have to teach and come back and give back to the country but you know personally you could possibly let us know what is it that you want to do to give back how do you plan on solving some of the problems that you've identified I am very much interested in using drama the main tool although I have experience in other arts areas I am working with drama can and we have been looking at play therapy and play back theater with adults and I want to bring it to the secondary school students and I'm also hoping to do some work with the boys' training center you know whenever when I was writing my paper I always reflected on the work that drama can started with them and when we started that work we were not ready we were not ready and studying it now I'm beginning to understand the way we should approach this and I think that's where I would like to start my work I would like to link up with the boys' training center and write a proposal and start some work with them because I think we can start a program there and see where it goes from there that comes to my mind as you said you mentioned that we were not ready can you just share what it was and for me just and I can imagine and it's strange we haven't had this conversation personally as to how you studying that aspect prepares us to now be able to go back into that voluntary work when we went to boys' training center we realized that you met boys who are at different levels emotionally and I don't know I don't know how to describe it Chanel I think I'll take it over to you but we just weren't ready to catch them we were not ready to meet them where they were intellectually, emotionally mentally, physically physical health oh my gosh drama education contributes to physical health and not just drama arts education dance teachers coordination hand eye coordination so many areas and that's one thing my paper touched on that arts education meets the developmental needs in terms of the intellectual needs physical needs, emotional needs and social needs it's all encompassing you know so I think that knowing that now I will be able to approach these boys knowing that they have some disadvantages and I can help them navigate and using their strengths nice thank you so much for that Chanel and you know you know anytime I have to come and end the conversation because anytime we get into it is like you'll go on and on and on yes yes but you know what thank you so much for your contribution and stepping up and congratulations on being able to publish your paper I remember when we had to always we had to note what's the proper way to note out, to cite just in 2020 this has been so much to me because we know what 2020 is all about so I am just happy that I was able to do something within this very challenging time with the help of the government as we wrap up you had to come home on a big jumbo plane what was that process like being able to travel and you know we don't want to go through the depressing stuff because we know that 2020 has depressing aspects and dark sides to it so let us know what it was like for you to come home let us know what the travel experience was like and going through, she went through quarantine guys so she has to tell us a little bit about the quarantine yes so it took me two days to get to my home country and two weeks to get to my physical home because I was in quarantine I must say it was very scary travelling to my home country because there were no direct flights from where I was in Canada, I was in your Brunswick and there was no way to get a direct flight so I had to travel through the US to get home and I made like six stops along the way and when I got to the US, it was like there was no pandemic and I can understand why the numbers are so high because there was very little social distancing even on the plane there was no social distancing so I was so scared I had to adapt to wearing a mask for the entire flight which was very challenging and in Canada as well masks were not mandatory but social distances were in effect and the airports were empty so it's almost like I came from an area where they took this pandemic very seriously social distancing, mask wearing and so on and then when I got to the US it was like another story like it was just night and day and when I finally got home I was so happy and then I went through the pre-arrival process and when I went through that process I realised why our numbers are so low we have a very very effective way of controlling the spread of this virus I was in customs before I got out I was in customs for probably an hour and I was required to sanitise my hands at least three times before I entered various different zones in the airport and I thought that's really good because that's how the virus spreads your hands and you know well your sneezing and so on and I also had to present a negative Covid test so for me I felt so secured and then I felt like we have this under control in St. Louis and I felt safe and I was just happy to be home in quarantine I was treated so well I I felt like a police escort a police escort listen this was so exciting when I got to the bus the driver told the police that they were ready and then when we were heading down it was just the sirens and we got a lot of attention but for me it was exciting it was like welcome home it was exciting for me I didn't feel like I was a criminal or anything to me it was I'm here everyone is welcoming me and I got this special treatment and it took us less than an hour to get to Kastri so I enjoyed that and when we got to Big Gardens which is where I was I said let's go again let's go again I was just happy to be home and the food was well prepared I got called to lunch and dinner to ask if I wanted fish chicken or beef that's a world treatment to me and my temperature was checked twice a day I kept myself busy by reading writing I was entertained with the television I had access to the internet the only challenging part for me about quarantine was not having my family I was there for two weeks by myself but I knew how to keep myself entertained it was fine do it again you wanted to quarantine again maybe with somebody well Chanel thank you so much for joining us here at Stepping Up and you know you have an amazing story to tell and you're almost done with your program so I wish you all the best fortune and favors moving forward and thank you so much and continue to keep Stepping Up thank you so much Daniel there are so many amazing things happening in St. Lucia right now everywhere you turn so many persons are Stepping Up as a country our citizens are so full of talent and have so many interesting stories to tell that's our objective of Stepping Up to capture and share as much as we can about our people thank you so much for joining me for this episode if you know anyone in your community who is Stepping Up or doing anything amazing feel free to send me an email at SteppingUp758 at gmail.com I'm your host Daniel Dubois once again thank you for joining us and don't forget to keep Stepping Up