StormBots Dominate at Girls Generation 2011

Skyview robotics team girls–Leslie, Becca, Madeline, Lauren, Zoey, and Hsuan-Ting—took the team’s competition robot from last season to Catlin Gable School on October 29 for the 2nd Annual girls-only “Girls Generation Robotics Competition.” This competition hopes to inspire girls to take advantage of the opportunities through FIRST Robotics to get “hands-on” experience with technology. It gives them a slight “leg up” over their often more domineering male counterparts, and a chance to witness the fun of engineering for themselves. Girls generation is a competition in which girls get to go work on the robot and drive it in a competition exactly like last year’s competition but in an all girls environment. Our team of girls worked hard and captured first place with their alliance partner. “We improved a lot from last year and especially in communicating skills” said Becca, a Sophomore, second year team member and the team’s Safety Captain. The girls liked fixing and driving the robot, interacting with other teams and helping rookies. Our girls also learned a lot about the competition, and how easily the robots can break—and how to fix them. When the girls were asked how big a role they thought that girls play in a robotics team they said that they don’t play a huge role, but they’re becoming more important. The whole team—40 students this year!– is gearing up for the winter pre-season event, Bunny Bot (where stuffed animals meet robots), to be held Saturday, December 17 at Catlin Gable School in Portland. Last year the team took second place and is looking for an improved showing with its new design this year. On January 7, 2012 our official season starts, and we will have six weeks to design and build our robot for the 2012 FIRST world competition.