Team Mauritius 2026 Heads to Incheon: Meet the Young Innovators Representing Our Island
Five students. Two mentors. One flag. Team Mauritius 2026 is preparing to represent the Republic of Mauritius at the FIRST Global Challenge in Incheon, Republic of Korea, from 7-10 October 2026. Behind the robot is a much bigger story of curiosity, discipline, teamwork and young Mauritians learning to see themselves as global innovators.
Led by YUVA, the team will join young people from more than 190 countries in one of the world’s most international youth robotics competitions.
From a Training Room in Port Louis to the Global Stage
For months, a room at the YUVA Academy in Port Louis has sounded less like an ordinary classroom and more like a workshop of possibilities.
There have been motors on tables, gears scattered between notebooks, programming screens glowing late into training sessions, and students debating whether a mechanical adjustment might solve the problem in front of them.
That room has become home to Team Mauritius 2026.
The students began with components and instructions. Gradually, they learned to assemble the drivetrain, test mechanisms, troubleshoot failures and programme movement. What initially looked like individual pieces slowly became a functioning robot.
Something similar happened to the students themselves.
They entered as individuals with different personalities, interests and abilities. They are travelling to Incheon as a team.
Meet the Five Students Representing Mauritius
The travelling student delegation comprises Kushiana Appadoo, Ethan Ng Kon, Yushmitha Sinanun, Darshan and Yashveer Leelah.
Each arrived at robotics through a different doorway.
For Kushiana, curiosity began with wanting to understand how things work. Today, she combines mechanical interest with strategy, leadership, creativity and outreach. As Vice-Captain, she brings the same curiosity she applies to art and science into the design and decision-making process of the team. She is particularly passionate about encouraging other young people, especially girls, to recognise that STEM belongs to them too.
Ethan brings an intensely curious and competitive spirit. A long-time competitive swimmer with a strong interest in science and engineering, he once looked at robotics as something almost impossibly complicated. His experience with Team Mauritius has shown him that difficult things become understandable through practice. He hopes to pursue engineering and sees robotics as an opportunity to turn scientific knowledge into practical solutions.
For Yushmitha, technology sits alongside a wonderfully broad range of interests. She enjoys badminton, music, dance, nature and digital storytelling. Her role in assembling the robot has given her hands-on exposure to mechanical systems, structural thinking and engineering. She hopes eventually to use technology to contribute to a more advanced and sustainable Mauritius.
Darshan, 16, brings the instinct of someone who has always wanted to know what is happening inside a machine. His fascination with sound systems, wiring and electronics grew from the childhood habit of dismantling things simply to understand them. Joining Team Mauritius has allowed him to turn that curiosity into something larger: building a robot while representing his country.
Yashveer, 18, leads much of the team’s programming work. His interest in robotics grew from his fascination with artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Programming the robot has required repeated testing, debugging and adjustment, teaching him that code is not simply about making something work. It is about thinking logically when it does not.
Five students. Five different stories. One shared responsibility.
The Mentors Behind the Team
Travelling with the students are mentors Sajida Jomeer and Luckkana Ghaneshwarsing.
Sajida’s relationship with robotics began years before this team was formed. Having participated in robotics experiences herself, she now occupies a different side of the table. She is passing forward what she once received.
Her role is not simply to explain technical concepts. It is to help students remain composed when something fails, encourage them to find their own solutions and remind them that confidence is built through doing.
Luckkana has supported Team Mauritius throughout its preparation, from organisation and training to robot development and team coordination. His mentoring philosophy reflects something central to the FIRST Global experience: young people grow most when they are given responsibility, supported through difficulty and trusted to solve problems themselves.
Together, the mentors provide the bridge between guidance and independence.
Why FIRST Global Is Bigger Than a Robot
The 2026 FIRST Global Challenge will bring together national teams from more than 190 countries in Incheon.
This year’s theme, Igniting Innovation, asks students to explore technology in the context of wildfire prevention, mitigation and recovery. Teams are challenged not merely to construct machines, but to consider how science, automation, engineering and data can contribute to environmental resilience.
For Team Mauritius, the experience has already stretched far beyond technical preparation.
The students have participated in international cultural exchanges, including an online meeting with Team North Macedonia. They have shared Mauritian culture with peers thousands of kilometres away and discovered the humanity behind the countries they will eventually encounter in Korea.
This is one of the quiet strengths of FIRST Global.
Robots create the reason to meet. People create the meaning.
Carrying a Small Island With a Remarkable Story
The official Team Mauritius photograph captures the travelling delegation holding the Mauritian flag against one of the island’s most recognisable landscapes.
It is an appropriate image.
Mauritius may be geographically small, but its story has always been larger than its size. It is a multicultural nation shaped by different continents, languages, religions and traditions. It is also home to extraordinary biodiversity and a conservation history that includes the recovery of species such as the Mauritius kestrel, pink pigeon and echo parakeet.
Innovation in Mauritius has therefore never been purely technological. It has often meant adaptation, coexistence and finding ways to thrive with limited resources.
Those qualities travel with Team Mauritius to Incheon.
YUVA Building Pathways Into STEM
Team Mauritius 2026 is led by YUVA, which has taken responsibility for creating, preparing and supporting the national team through the YUVA Academy.
At its robotics facility in Port Louis, YUVA provides young people with practical exposure to engineering, programming, robot construction, teamwork and problem-solving.
For YUVA, STEM education should not remain something young Mauritians merely read about.
They should touch it. Build it. Break it. Question it. Rebuild it.
As one of Mauritius’ most active youth organisations, YUVA continues to create opportunities that connect young people with leadership, education, innovation and international exposure. The FIRST Global programme represents that philosophy in its most tangible form.
The robot matters. The young person who emerges from building it matters even more.
A Journey Made Possible by Support
National representation also requires a community behind the team.
YUVA and Team Mauritius gratefully acknowledge the support being extended by Mauritius Telecom and Eclosia Technology Services, whose contribution to this journey reflects an important investment in Mauritian youth and STEM development.
Behind them are also families who have given up weekends, schools that have encouraged their students, volunteers who have supported training, and people who have quietly helped solve practical problems along the way.
No national team reaches an international stage entirely on its own.
Every journey like this contains an invisible team behind the visible one.
Mauritius, See You in Incheon
In October, Team Mauritius 2026 will stand alongside students from across the world.
There will be robots, competition, technical pressure and moments when months of preparation are tested in seconds.
But success cannot be measured only by a scoreboard.
These young Mauritians have already learned to build something from nothing, to stay with a problem when the answer is unclear, to work with people who think differently and to carry the name of their country with responsibility.
They are travelling to Incheon to compete.
They are also travelling to learn, connect, represent and return home capable of imagining something bigger.
Team Mauritius 2026 is ready to carry the quadricolour to the world.