Girls of Steel – Robohub

‘It’s a reminder we are making a difference in the world’: Girls of Steel follow up

Theresa Richards — Wed, 14 Dec 2016 13:15:26 +0000

Photo: 2016-2017 Girls of Steel Robotics students in grades 8 to 12.

The Girls of Steel – a competitive FIRST team in Pittsburg, PA – is on a mission to engage more young women into engineering. Over the last few years, we’ve heard what it’s like to be part of an all-girls robotics team and spoke with team’s mentors. Now, we’re following up with the team to talk about their successes and developments since being listed in our 25 Women in Robotics list.

What has changed for Girls of Steel in the last two years?

On the technical side, we created a new subteam called the design subteam. After a team brainstorming session, the team decides on the tasks they want the robot to do. Then design subteam uses suggestions of all the tasks and designs and CADs (using Solidworks) a robot to fit all of their designed requirements. The addition of this subteam has made the team more organized and sped up the building process due to increased accuracy.

Photo: Outreach at the 2016 Pittsburgh Maker Faire.

Girls of Steel changed their mission statement and to make it clearer and less vague. The new mission statement is, “To empower women and girls in the pursuit of STEM by exemplifying female success in robotics”. Our team goals also changed within the last two years. The 2016-2017 goals are:

Talk to 5,000+ people face to face – to inspire people, especially young girls, about STEM.
Have our robot score as many autonomous points as possible during competitions.
Make sure every girl knows her contribution to the team and the robot.

What are some of your latest accomplishments and achievements?

The team has won multiple awards yearly at regional competitions, which includes:

the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship award (2014, 2015, 2016), which celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit by recognizing a team that has developed the framework for a comprehensive business plan to scope, manage, and achieve team objectives,
the Engineering Inspiration award (2014, 2016), which celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school and community,
the 2015 Regional Chairman’s Award at the Buckeye Regional, the most prestigious award at FIRST, it honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST,
and the Comcast NBCUniversal Media and Technology Innovation Award that recognizes the team that develops and implements the most outstanding digital experience, marketing strategy, and rationale for digital channels to disseminate content to its audience and further the FIRST mission.

2016 Engineering Inspiration Award at Queen City Regional, Cincinnati, OH

In addition, the team was recognized in 2016 by the North Hills Pittsburgh Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) with the Gateway to Equity Award.

We participated at the first White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh with our “Inspiring Girls Through Robotics” exhibit where we demoed our Chassis Project activity, met other exhibitors and even experienced the simulation of docking a spacecraft to the International Space Station at the Boeing CST-100 Starliner Simulator demo. Here’s a link to a clip of President Obama’s speech at the conference where he mentions Girls of Steel.

Boeing CST-100 Starliner Simulator demo at the White House Frontiers Conference.

How did being on the “25 Women in Robotics” list impact the group?

While a lot of the girls that experienced the full impact of the article have now graduated, being mentioned so highly still astounds many members of the team. Even girls who were new members are shocked we were considered to be in the top 25, out of every woman in robotics in 2014. It made a big mark on our community that we were recognized. It truly is a reminder and validator that we matter and are making a difference in the world around us. That is one of the best things that can be said about what we put our time and effort towards.

Young participant assembling the chassis at the White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh, PA

How do you cope with changing membership as girls move on to new study/work opportunities?

At the end of each season, we elect a new Leadership Council for the upcoming year. A form is sent out to the girls asking if they are interested in a leadership position and why they think they would make a great leader. Then a panel of Girls of Steel mentors and alumni conduct interviews for all applicants and discuss and select the leadership council for the upcoming season. To incorporate new girls into our team we hold a new girl orientation meeting, we invite them to come to the leadership council meetings, and we create a group of three girls: returning, new, and junior member, a triad, which gets together during meetings. This creates our sense of team culture – friendly, welcoming, and fun.

As one of our new parents said, “My daughter has found her tribe.”

How important has robotics been to new career options for the team?

Girl of Steel Robotics has increased the interests of many girls pursuing a career in the STEM fields. It also helps develop the skills needed for a variety of careers in STEM. It has given the girls confidence to enter fields that are traditionally male dominant and helps teach them the tools to excel.

What do you want to get out of being in the women in robotics network?

The most rewarding part of being a girl involved in robotics is inspiring other girls and women who are intimidated by the STEM fields. By giving a clear example of female success in STEM, we can encourage other girls to get involved and eliminate the mindset that girls do not belong in male-dominated fields. At Carnegie Mellon University, we also have access to a supportive Society of Women Engineers chapter that is always looking to make connections with other girls.

Do you have anything you’d like to say to other young women?

We would like to tell others: they really can do it! No matter how difficult or intimidating STEM fields seem there is always a supportive network of women ready to support and encourage you in your pursuit of different careers. Also, as a woman, you are more than capable of succeeding in any field you set your mind to!

Read more about the Girls of Steel, here:

The story of Atlas, FRC Team #3504 Girls of Steel

Molly Urbina — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 16:14:43 +0000

I’m Molly Urbina, a member of the FIRST Team #3504, Girls of Steel. Every year our team makes a comic strip about the past year’s robot to show other girls just how much fun competing in FIRST can be. This year’s comic is about our robot Atlas! From this comic, you will be able to see how it works and what FIRST is.

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FIRST 2014 photo essay: Girls of Steel back in St. Louis

Lynn Urbina — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 00:26:49 +0000

The Girls of Steel are in the stands during the awards ceremonies at the Buckeye regional, and we’re waiting to see if our team will make it to the Championships. It has been a long build season; we spent a lot of time building, programming and wiring our robot, preparing it for competition. We wrote essays for awards, created information packets, and participated in outreach events. We are silent as the announcer describes the winning team with an overview of what it has accomplished … 22 different schools … an internship program … Chinese summer camps — it has to be us. Then he announced the winner – it IS our team. We scream in joy! We’re going to the FIRST Robotics Championships in St. Louis!

Day One: April 23, 2014

Our team arrives in a bus at 4pm, just in time to start loading in our pit. After the pit is set up, the team watches the practice matches begin. Our robot is put together and tested to make sure that it works. We watch as our robot goes through its practice match. It passes through inspection – great job Pit Crew! Afterwards, we all head over to a restaurant and have a team dinner. We take an entire floor! As we walk through the streets in St. Louis, all we can see are teams wearing their uniforms, as FIRST takes over St. Louis.

Day Two: April 24, 2014

Day Two of competition begins and the Qualification Matches begins! Girls of Steel are in the Galileo Division at the FRC Championships. There are four divisions: Newton, Archimedes, Galileo and Curie. Curie has a curse on it that FIRST likes to call “The Curie Curse.” No alliance from the Curie Division has ever won the FIRST Championships in all of the 25 years that FIRST has been around.
The game for this year is called Aerial Assist. Alliances of 3 robots have to pass a 2 ft diameter yoga ball down the field to get points. Each pass, called an assist, is worth 10 points. There are goals at the ends of the field; there is a high goal and a low goal. There is also a truss in the center. If a ball is thrown over the truss, it is ten points, and it a robot can catch the ball, that is another ten points.

It’s a tradition at FIRST that every team has a pin to give out. Many people like to collect as many pins as they can, wearing them on their shirts or collecting them in bags. I like to collect other things, such as necklaces and bracelets. I went through the entire pits to gather bracelets; I got about 25 of them.

In the evening our team gets ready for Roboprom. Team 339 Eagle Robotics hosts a prom annually for FIRST students because some students miss their prom while attending Champs. It’s an awesome event with dancing, singing, and games.

Day Three: April 25, 2014

The day starts off with Opening Ceremonies, and founder Dean Kamen gives his annual speech. He also invited other guests, who have inspiring stories about achieving success through hard work. He also announces that the next year’s FIRST Championships will expand, allowing 200 more FIRST teams to compete in the competition!

As the matches begin, scouting begins. Our team watches how robots perform. Our robot is great at assisting, so we work with teams to form a strategy with all of our robots. Some have great shooters, some robots can catch, and some assist just like ours. We know which team is good at what because we scout and gather this data.

During lunch, Dean’s List award winners are also announced. The Dean’s List is a prestigious award given to ten winners from a large pool of kids that support their team and community. Will.I.Am and Dean Kamen both give speeches at this ceremony, as well as new FIRST supporter, Lynn Tilton. Last year, we had a winner on our team. This year we have another winner on our team! Congratulations!

Day Four: April 26, 2014

It’s the last day of competition. Elimination matches take place for most of the day. Unfortunately, our team is not picked to be in the elimination, but we get to watch some great teams battle it out.

The final matches are played on the Einstein Field. During the finals, Will.I.Am performs his hit, “Hall of Fame”, which is remixed to feature FIRST. It’s awesome! The final two alliances go head to head; Newton versus Curie. Despite the curse, Curie – Teams 254, 2848, and 469 – overcome their tough competition and wins! The Curie Curse is broken! Congratulations!

Want to come next year? Come to the FIRST Championships, from April 22-25, 2015 in St. Louis!

Six weeks to build a robot: A FIRST photo essay

Lynn Urbina — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:07:09 +0000

This photo essay documents the Girls of Steel as they built their newest robot for the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) division. Teams are given the parameters of the game and have just six weeks to build their robot.

This year’s game, called Aerial Assist, involves passing a 2-ft diameter exercise ball across a field to different teams to gain points, and there are also various goals through which the ball can go to score more points.

Our six-week Build Season recently came to a close, and we finished our robot close to schedule. Here is the adventure that we had along the way!

Week 1
Kickoff, the day when the game is announced to the world, starts the Build Season with a bang! During this week, the team brainstorms about strategy and robot design. It is a week focused on paper designs, written strengths, and possible full robot designs. By the end of the week, the team has decided our general design, our chosen chassis design, and identified our robot’s strengths and weaknesses.

Week 2
This week is all about the initial design, 3D modeling, and prototyping. A group of girls begin to design the robot and figure out how it will do the tasks it is supposed to do. When an idea needs to be tested, other girls on the team help by building prototypes. We also begin to fabricate our chassis. By the end of week two, we have several working prototypes, the frame of the chassis welded, and the pieces to start assembling the rest of the chassis.

Week 3
Fabricating and designing are the two main activities that are going on for the mechanical team. As more designs become finalized, we being to fabricate and assemble everything together. Girls receive diagrams, or ‘(technical) drawings’, of the parts and then machine the parts using tools such as the mill, drill press, band saw, and lathe. While the robot is being build, girls are programming the basic code for the robot. By the end of week three, we have built a working chassis and have most of the frame ready to be assembled.

Week 4

Past the halfway mark! As the rest of the robot is being assembled other important parts, like bumpers, are being made. Code is being written and electronics are being placed on the robot. Our 3D model is also almost finished. By the end of Week Four, most of our robot is assembled and is in the final stages of having the electronics put on. Most of the programming is complete and waiting to be tested. This week we name our robot Atlas, after the greek mythological figure, because when our robot holds the ball, it looks like it’s holding up the world!

Week 5

The mechanical team finishes building the robot, and the electronics girls finish their work so that programming can begin to test their code. This is also the week where the drive team, a small group of girls that competes with the robot during the competition, begins to practice with the robot as well.

Week 6

While drive team practices and programmers test code, the mechanical girls are finishing up a second Atlas that will just be used for practice – not in competition. After so much work over the weeks, the final night, called Bag and Tag, is the final day we get to work on the robot until competition. It is an exciting night as our robot is placed in a giant plastic bag, waiting to be revealed at competition.

After a busy six weeks, the robot is finished and we are ready to go into competition! Atlas is an awesome robot, I hope you enjoyed learning about Build Season and FIRST. We just found out we are going to the championships!

If you would like to learn more, please visit the official FIRST website and our website as well.

[Photo credits: Arushi Bandi, Elizabeth Kysel, and Walt Urbina]

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EVE: An ultimate frisbee playing robot

Lynn Urbina — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 23:10:46 +0000

Being a member of FIRST Team 3504, The Girls of Steel, has been an amazing experience: I have built robots with my teammates, gone to international competitions, and have had great time. We recently competed with our latest robot, E.V.E., and my friends and family have been asking “How does it work?”. This comic explains it all – I hope you enjoy it! (You can download a PDF of the full comic here.)

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Mentors of Steel: The role of mentoring in robotics education

Mike Hamer — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 19:23:29 +0000

The Girls of Steel – a competitive FIRST team located in Pittsburg, PA – is on a mission to draw more young women into engineering. We’ve already heard what it’s like to be part of an all-girls robotics team, we now catch up with the team’s mentors, Theresa Richards and George Kantor, to hear about their roles in inspiring and mentoring the team. Here’s what they have to say …

How and why did you become a mentor?

George: My lab, the Field Robotics Center at CMU, was approached by Patti Rote about creating an all-girls FIRST Robotics Competition Team in the summer of 2010. I have been involved in various K-12 robotics outreach activities dating back to the 90s, and I had always wanted to learn more about FIRST. So I offered to lead the team.

Theresa: I became a mentor because I was very interested in learning more about FIRST robotics and about how I could work with the FIRST program to support and encourage girls in the interdisciplinary field of robotics. The study of robotics includes all STEM fields.

Did you have a mentor when you were growing up? If so, can you tell us about this person and the impact they had on you?

George: Growing up, I had a swimming coach who taught me lessons about setting goals and perseverance. In graduate school and throughout my time as a researcher at CMU I have had a series of mentors who have helped shape my technical career.

Theresa: I had several mentors when I was growing up. Most of my mentors were my high school science teachers who offered opportunities for me to do activities with them outside of school. For example, my biology teacher invited me to participate as his teaching assistant at an evening class he taught. My chemistry teacher helped me get a part-time job and she introduced me to my college – the same one she attended, and my zoology teacher took a group of us on a special field trip and she arranged for an “extra credit” dissection lesson after school. These awesome teachers recognized my interest in science and made sure to offer opportunities. When I think back about it now, I feel so grateful that they took extra time with me. That’s what I try to do for my students.

Do you have any suggestions for teachers or others who may want to get started as a mentor?

George: Just do it! There are plenty of opportunities to mentor young people, and it is an extremely rewarding experience.

Theresa: Other teachers who are interested in finding out about a FIRST robotics team should go to the website and click “What teams and events are located in my area?” I bet they’ll find a robotics program that will welcome them with open arms. If the teacher feels unsure about being a robotics mentor, he/she should attend a meeting or two before making a decision. Working with the students is inspiring because of their interest in creating something and learning so many new things. And it’s amazing to hear a student say, “So that’s why we learned this in math or in physics” or “I never would have considered engineering if I weren’t on this team.”

What’s the hardest part about mentoring?

George: It is important to encourage people to dream big, but on the other hand aspiring engineers often have unrealistic expectations about what they can accomplish. Helping students define achievable goals often involves encouraging them not to pursue some of their more ambitious ideas, and delivering that message in a positive way can be a challenge. I want my students to believe they can do anything, but I also need to teach them to approach their dreams in a realistic way.

Theresa: The hardest part about mentoring – there really isn’t a hard part, except that having meetings during after school hours from 5 pm until 8:30 or later means we have some late nights, especially during the 6-week build season. Mentoring is a rewarding experience on multiple levels. I enjoy the experience of working together with students, and colleagues and parents who have similar interests of encouraging girls in STEM fields. Like they say in FIRST, “It’s the hardest fun you’ll ever have” – that goes for mentors as well as students.

Do girls need female role models?

George: Yes. It is inspiring for girls to see women in the roles they aspire to, especially in fields like computer science and engineering that are currently dominated by men.

Theresa: Girls need female role models in STEM fields in order learn about various careers and to be able to see themselves in various positions or careers in STEM fields. Girls also benefit from belonging to a network or group of girls who share similar interests while in high school, college, and beyond.

Which students should participate in robotics competitions?

George: All students, especially those with technical interests. Robotics competitions are easily accessible, and they provide an opportunity to learn valuable technical skills in a fun way. They also provide an opportunity to learn life skills that are useful regardless of what career they decide to pursue: teamwork, goal setting, time management, etc.

Theresa: I believe all girls will benefit in some way from joining the Girls of Steel or another FIRST robotics team. The level of the benefit will depend on their level of participation. Participation on the Girls of Steel FIRST robotics team can range from 4 to 20 hours a week during the year. The number of hours depends on the “season” – preseason, build season or competition season – and on a girl’s particular role on the team – e.g. leaders spend time preparing for team meetings and have additional leadership meetings to attend. Why do you recommend robotics competitions for everyone? Not only do the students apply what they’ve learned in computer science, math, science, and engineering classes they also learn that it can be fun to work hard. They learn so much about themselves by being a part of the team. For example, I’ve heard girls say things like “only girls on the team understand why I like ….”, “I found my best friends on the team”, “now I know the difference between a personal goal and a team goal” , “ Only you get my jokes,” and more.

There are many robotics competitions for students. Why FIRST?

George: I really like FIRST’s approach to competition. Winning is important, but greater importance is placed on cooperation and professionalism. FIRST has invented words that capture this spirit and are central to everything that FIRST does: “coopertition” and “gracious professionalism”. In addition, FIRST goes to extra efforts to make its events exciting. The games are well designed, with attention paid to making the matches interesting to watch. The competitions are narrated by professional emcees and the field set-up has a high production value. The result is something that is a cross between a rock concert, a sporting event, and a science fair.

Theresa: I really don’t know much about other competitions except that some involve “fighting robots” rather than “game playing robots,” and the robots vary in size. FIRST® (USFIRST.org) is an organization that promotes robotics competitions for all ages that involve more than just a robot. Our team competes at the FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) level that involves designing and building a 120 lb. robot over a period of 6 weeks to play a game with 5 other robots on the field. The awards structure of FIRST promotes other aspects of the team – like fundraising (to raise money for registration fees), outreach, teamwork, public speaking, leadership, media, and more. We’ve found that having a FIRST team seems to be like running a business with students having the opportunity for major leadership roles. High School level FIRST teams are encouraged to support STEM awareness for younger people in the community. Publishing Lynn’s comic about the 2012 FRC season on our website and on Robohub is just one way the Girls of Steel FIRST robotics team contributes toward that goal.

Thank you both very much for your time, and best of luck to you and the Girls of Steel in future competitions!

Getting into the driver’s seat: Girls of Steel tell us how they got hooked on robotics

Mike Hamer — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 11:48:55 +0000

Girls of Steel at the 2013 FIRST Championships. Photo credit: Walt Urbina.

The Girls of Steel – a competitive FIRST team located in Pittsburg, PA – is on a mission to draw more young women into engineering. We asked team members Mackenzie Ferris (16), Sylvie Lee (16), Molly Urbina (15), Lynn Urbina (17), and Becca Volk (15) to give us the inside scoop of what it’s like to be part of an all-girls robotics team. Here’s what they have to say …


Lynn Urbina Age: 17 Grade: 12 Years on GoS: 3 Technical Sub-Team: Mechanical	Mackenzie Ferris Age: 16 Grade: 11 Years GoS: 3 Technical Sub-Team: Programming	Molly Urbina Age: 15 Grade: 10 Years on GoS: 2 Technical Sub-Team: Mechanical


Rebecca (Becca) Volk Age: 15 Grade: 10 Years on GoS: 2 Technical Sub-Team: Electronics	Sylvie Lee Age: 16 Grade: 11 Years on GoS: 3 Technical Sub-Team: Programming

How did the “Girls of Steel” form as a team?

Lynn: In the summer of 2010, one of our founding mentors, Patti Rote, wanted to create an all girls FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics team in Pittsburgh. Patti asked George Kantor, of the Field Robotics Center at Carnegie Mellon University, to help. In the fall of 2010, Girls of Steel FIRST robotics team 3504 was formed with about twenty girls. This year is our fourth year and we expect to have around forty girls on our team.

Was this your first introduction to robotics?

Mackenzie: Yes. I didn’t do anything robotics-related until I joined.

Becca: No. I did FLL (FIRST® Lego League, a division in FIRST® Robotics for younger children) and was on a different robotics team before joining. Girls of Steel is a different level of robotics that my other teams.

Lynn: Sort of. I did some Lego Robot Kits when I was in middle school, but that was all.

Sylvie: I was interested in computer science because my mom is a computer scientist, but I didn’t do anything robotics-related until joining the team.

Molly: No, but I did some Lego Robotics when I was younger and attended Tech Nights (a program in Carnegie Mellon University that aims to get middle school girls into technology).

What were some technical challenges that you faced with FIRST, and how did you solve them?

Becca: Electronic boards often don’t fit on the robot due to changes we’ve made, so we have to rearrange the electronics in order to fit them on the boards. Other times, electronics just don’t work, so we have to replace them. Usually we find out about broken electronics after we put them on.

Lynn: I had to create a square hole with a mill; a mill is a machine that usually drills round holes, but I had to make a square hole. In order to do this, I had to learn about a new drill bit, do a lot of math and then drill the hole. After drilling the hole, I discovered I had drilled it to the left by one extra inch. I had to do it all over again!

What is your best experience from being in Girls of Steel?

Mackenzie: Definitely being a driver last year. Before being a driver, I wasn’t in the Pit (the area where we work on our robot during competition) as often as I wanted to be, and therefore wasn’t as involved. As the driver, not only did I get to drive the robot, I was in the middle of all the action and I really knew what the team was doing.

Becca: My favorite moment was ‘bag and tag day’ (the final day to work on your robot) with Watson, our 2012 robot. We accomplished a lot that day. The Great Migration (when all the electronics are moved from one position to another in 3 hours) was the night before … programmers were programming until five in the morning, and then we still needed to fix things mechanically. It was a hectic day, but we were efficient, productive and got it finished.

Lynn: Two years ago I was the driver, and I had to practice four hours or more each day for the few weeks leading up to championships. At the championships we were mediocre in the rankings, which made me a little disappointed because I put so much work into practicing. My spirits were lifted when I found out that we were the number one balancer (an aspect of the game where the robot had to balance on a bridge) in our division, and in the top twenty in the entire competition of four hundred teams.

Sylvie: My best experience was getting to work in the Pit. When I was working on the robot in the Pit, I got a huge adrenaline rush. All of us were working together quickly and it was really exciting.

Molly: Welding is my favorite. I never had to deal with hot metal before and after burning my hand once, I learned not to get near hot tools without proper safety equipment. Welding is still really fun, even after the burn.

Any fun anecdotes?

Sylvie: Programming jokes! I have so many! One is, “Oh, I’m out of your scope”.

Lynn: Ha! I get it!

Molly: I don’t get it.

Sylvie: A variable can be out of a scope, or out of certain curly brackets, so parts of the program can ‘see’ it. The expression basically means, “I’m out of your league,” in programming language. And then there are the comment out fingers //: “I can no longer see you.”

Becca: I saw a comic of two guys sword fighting and their boss comes in and asks, “Why aren’t you working?” They responded, “Our code’s compiling.”

Sylvie: That’s so true!

Mackenzie: Drive team practice. Period. We have such a blast! Once I was practicing with my phone, with one hand holding my phone and the other controlling the joystick, and Lynn scolded me. Then another time Molly set up cones so close together that I knocked down them all with the robot.

Becca: During the night of the Great Migration I drank four bottles of Mountain Dew. Not cans, bottles. I first crashed, then after ten minutes I was so hyper. I was up until 2am working on the robot, and then I came home and realized I didn’t write a paper that was due the next day. I wrote it, then got to bed at four 4am.

Sylvie: That’s an impressive feat for two hours.

Becca: I know! The thing with procrastination: it takes eight hours to get thirty minutes of work done, but it takes thirty minutes to get eight hours of work done.

Molly: One time another welder and I were behind the welding curtain (a curtain to protect other’s eyes). We were trying to get our mentor’s attention so we were moving the unfinished heart-shaped chassis above the curtain. When that didn’t work, we moved it around while yelling his name.

Lynn: There was the time I broke the Chrome Book screen and Sylvie had to work with colors.

Sylvie: Oh yeah! My mother was teaching me how to use the Chrome Book after the screen cracked and her instructions, literally, were: “Click CTRL+A, wait until the screen turns light purple, and then continue. If the black crack by the left corner flickers, that means you have done it wrong, restart the computer.” It was so bizarre!

Lynn: That’s gold!

If you could build any robot, what would it do?

Becca: Fly.

Molly: A chore robot because I really don’t like chores. Or a robot that can use my face to figure out what food I want to eat, like in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Sylvie: Something that can get me places without me moving. I have a thing about moving. Or a cooking robot, I like food.

Lynn: A robot that can map the ocean floor and can identify new species of fish. There are robots that map the sea floor, but I want to create one that can identify new fish.

What do your friends at school think about you being part of a robotics competition? Do they “get” it?

Lynn: I’m cyber-schooled so I don’t know many of my classmates, but my friends think it’s nice. They don’t understand why I spend so much time on it though. Robotics isn’t just a hobby, it becomes a lifestyle.

Mackenzie: At my first school, my friends would tease me about it in a kind way, but they thought it was really cool. In my second school, my friends thinks it’s cool and interesting.

Becca: I always talk about it and my teachers and friends think it’s cool. They like it, but they don’t think they would want to do it. Some of my friends have come to our competitions, too. That was really fun.

Molly: My teachers love it, but my friends call it a ‘nerdy thing’. A few of my friends understand, but they don’t want to come to competitions. It’s okay though; I enjoy it and that’s what really matters.

Sylvie: My friends know it’s a big part of my life and that it’s a huge time commitment, but they don’t know too much about it. They just know that it’s about robotics.

Has it made a difference for you to be part of an all-girl team? Would it be the same if your team were co-ed?

Becca: My other team was a coed team and was run differently. Many times the boys took mechanical jobs, so girls did more of the business tasks, even though we all got to build the robot. In Girls of Steel it’s different. We’re more open. I also think we are more connected because it’s an all-girls team. Even though we’re stubborn, we depend on each other. Also, girls have a similar mindset, so we understand why we do certain things better.

Molly: We can speak our minds easily because we are all girls, but we have more drama.

Sylvie: We are dramatic, but not in a normal way.

Becca: Its drama in a very robotics way.

Sylvie: Things like, “My design wasn’t used,” or “I didn’t get to work on this part.” Even, “Why wasn’t she here working on the robot?” It’s really funny because it isn’t about boys or the classic drama. There is also some bitterness between the programmers and the mechanical girls that appears once in a while. It’s more because we are a bit stubborn and each one of us has our own view of the robot.

Becca: In the end, the robot is a mesh of all the girls’ ideas.

Sylvie: Also, if there were boys, I wouldn’t feel as comfortable. When it’s all girls, we know each other really well because we do a lot together … mainly eating.

Mackenzie: It would be different on a coed team. On some other coed teams girls do business, guys do the mechanical work. It’s unfair. Also, I took a class for engineering and, although the teacher was good, he favored the boys.

Lynn: Girls of Steel is a family. We have all our sisters, plus our mentors who are like uncles, aunts, older brothers and sisters to us. It really is a family, and I think it’s because of the culture we have.

What would you say to other girls who are curious about robotics but who aren’t sure if it’s for them, or who don’t know how to get started?

Molly: Come to the dark side, we have robots and cookies.

Becca: Honestly, try it. Google ‘robotics’, or look up different teams and research things you have heard.

Lynn: Get a Lego Robot Kit. You can build robots out of Lego, and it is simple programming. If you want to get more advanced, buy an Arduino. It has a reasonable price, plus you can find a lot of tutorials online for using other devices with the Arduino. Also look for teams around the area, including FIRST® teams, VEX teams and Battle Bots teams.

Sylvie: For programming, there are a lot of internships and others opportunities if you look for them. Some of them aren’t robotics-related, but still try programming. There is nothing to be afraid of … there is nothing to lose.

Mackenzie: Join a team to see what it is like. There is something for everyone, even if you don’t think there is anything for you. If there are any robotics events around town, go to them. Also, go to competitions nearby and talk to people … you never know who you will meet.

FIRST 2013 photo essay: Girls of Steel in the trenches at the FRC championship finals

Lynn Urbina — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 04:40:00 +0000

It’s the end of the competition, and we’ve worked hard to get here: the long nights in the machine shop, drawing 3D models, writing essays for awards and fixing our robot whenever it breaks down. But now it’s the awards ceremony at our regional, and we’re waiting to see if our team will make it to the Championships. We stay silent as the announcer describes the winning team with subtle hints. Then he gives a big clue. Wait a minute… it sounds like our team! It IS our team. We scream in joy! We’re going to the Championships in St. Louis!

That was our team during the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Pittsburgh regional in March. My team, the Girls of Steel, won the Engineering Inspiration Award: our ticket to the championships. Getting there was hard work, but everyone – from the mentors to the members – pitched in to get our team to that moment.

It was an exciting few days after we won, but then it was back to business. We had a lot of preparation ahead of us! FIRST has four divisions, and my team was in the high school division FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). FRC Teams must build a robot in six weeks to participate in this event!

But let’s fast-forward to the competition …

Wednesday: April 24, 2013
Whether by bus, plane or car, this is the day everyone arrives in St. Louis where the robots will compete. We can tell that a lot of people in the city are here for FIRST. The crowds are enormous. Three teams are staying in the same hotel as my family.

We have a team dinner that night and we take up an entire section of the restaurant – a great way to bond with the girls, mentors and parents, full of laughs and good times!

Thursday: April 25, 2013
Today is the first day of competition.Practice matches happen in the morning, as well as robot inspection. It’s a very busy time for the girls in the pit crew, whose job it is to get the robot up and working for competition. But the pit crew has done their job well: we pass inspection with flying colors.

I’m on the drive team, and that makes me and the other three girls on the crew responsible for controlling our robot as it competes. During the day, we scope out our competition, which is intense – I’m impressed much of the time. Groups of three teams compete together, and so alliances are being made as teams check out how the competing robots work. It’s important to find other teams with robots that complement ours so that we can build an alliance with no weaknesses.

This year, the challenge is to get your robot to throw/shoot/dump Frisbees into goals at different heights. Goals are worth 3 points, 2 points or 1 point, depending on the difficulty. The best way to describe it is a pyramid jungle gym: three different sized squares made from metal tube held together with four poles, one in each corner, with a special goal on top.

It’s a tradition at FIRST that every team has a pin to give out, and many people collect these pins and display how many they have. Some wear suits made of duct tape that hold hundreds of buttons; others wear just a few on their pant legs. I seem to get stabbed by the pins, so I just put them in my backpack.

In the evening is RoboProm. Robotics. Prom. It seems odd to put these together. Well actually, it isn’t! Many seniors miss their prom to come to the FIRST Championships, so Team 339 Eagle Robotics hosts a prom annually for students. It’s an awesome event with dancing, singing and games.

Friday: April 26, 2013
Opening Ceremonies. The founder of FIRST, Dean Kamen, gives a speech to all the students. Other supporters of FIRST give speeches as well, including singer/rapper Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas! I actually get to meet him for a brief moment before he goes on stage and I’m star struck.

The competition begins! The Pits, a huge area where each team gets a small square to work, is crammed with people.

Strategy is a huge part of this competition. Because our team is strong in shooting and maneuvering, our driver is able to outsmart and avoid some of our opponents by getting our robot to spin around. Other teams try to block their opponents’ robots from getting close to the goals, or use one robot to guard another that is capable of full court shots. Everyone is trying to expose their opponents’ weaknesses so they can win.

At the end of the day, the Dean’s List award finalists are also announced. The Dean’s List is a prestigious award given to ten winners from a large pool of kids that support their team and community. Will.I.Am and Dean Kamen both give speeches at this ceremony as well. One of the finalists is from our team!

Saturday: April 17, 2013
The last day of competition. Elimination matches take place for most of the day. Unfortunately, our team is not picked to be in the elimination, but we get to watch some great teams battle it out.

The final matches are played on the Einstein Field. It’s intense to watch both sides battling it out for the crown. Scores are hitting into the two hundreds! One alliance stands out, however. Congrats to the FRC Champions, Team 1241, Team 1477 and Team 610!

It’s a long few days, but some of the hardest fun I will ever have in my life. Want to come next year? Come find the Girls of Steel, from April 23-26, 2014 in St. Louis!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=u7k5IxsixO4

[Photos by Walt Urbina; Edited by Hallie Siegel]

Lynn Urbina on FIRST, Watson and the Girls of Steel

Hallie Siegel — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 20:57:43 +0000

A high school student by day and a power-tool-toting Maker by night, Lynn Urbina is a member of the Girls of Steel – an all-girl competitive robotics team located in Pittsburg, PA that’s on a mission to draw young women into engineering.

Next week the Girls of Steel will compete in a robot frisbee match in the FIRST regionals in Pittsburg. Each year FIRST competitors face a different challenge: last year it was basketball. Short for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” FIRST was founded in 1989 to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology. And these girls are clearly inspired: despite having only arrived on the competition scene in 2010, they have already made it to the FIRST World Championships twice, have won a pile of awards (including the Rookie All-Star and the Engineering Inspiration Award) and are hoping to make it to the finals again this year.

Lynn shares her experience with the FIRST competition, the Girls of Steel team, what it was like to build their 2012 robot (affectionately called “Watson”) in a series of drawings she made …

(You can also download the full comic as a PDF here.)

(The real Watson)

(The Girls of Steel)

Key Info:
Competition: FIRST, founded 1989
Team: 3504 The Girls of Steel, Pittsburgh, PA, founded 2010
Mentorship: Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute