Student inventors from across the globe defied the STEM gender gap this week, convening in the District to compete in the world’s first international robot contest for high schoolers.
First daughter Ivanka Trump arrived at the competition Tuesday morning to congratulate the six all-female teams on their work in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics).
“For many of you who have traveled great lengths to be here, we welcome you. It’s a privilege and an honor to have you all with us,” Ms. Trump said.
FIRST Global, a leadership program sponsoring kids interested in STEM, aided nearly 160 countries in sending student teams and the robots they designed to the two-day competition at DAR Constitution Hall in the District.
FIRST Global founder Dean Kamen highlighted the mission of the event: aiding less-prosperous nations to finally enter into the world of robotics.
“By empowering the bright young minds of tomorrow through STEM, countries all over the world — particularly in developing countries — could experience accelerated economic growth and obtain secure and peaceful livelihoods for their nations,” Mr. Kamen said during Sunday night’s opening ceremony.
Jose Escotto, communications director for FIRST Global, told The Washington Times that the organization prioritizes giving women the tools to take their place confidently in the technology field.
“We have over 800 students in this competition — 200 of them are women. That’s something we definitely pride ourselves in. We know women have been terribly underrepresented when it comes to careers in STEM,” said Mr. Escotto. “So today we have a number of all-female teams from the U.S., Ghana, Vanuatu, Jordan and Afghanistan. Sixty percent of the teams we have here today were either led, formed or organized by women.”
Tightly packed and brightly colored stations for each country lined the walls of Constitution Hall, where teams chatted excitedly as they worked on their robots.
Despite language barriers, a spirit of camaraderie and a passion for robotics joined the students together. In fact, many competitors went from table to table with plastic balls or T-shirts for opposing teams to sign as mementos.
“Since the challenge was released, there’s been social media flying between all these teams. They’ve all been chatting, Skypeing and talking for months,” said Team USA coach Sharon Johnson. “So they show up to the competition and they already know some of these teams. They’ve been collaborating on programming and building ideas. The hope is that they’ll continue to stay networked and continue collaborating beyond the competition.”
The robot competition is to be an annual event in a different country each year with a different theme — like the Olympics athletic games, according to FIRST Global. This year’s theme, “Clean Water,” was evidenced by the advanced challenges in which the teams’ robots competed.
“There are particles — little orange and blue balls — on the field. The blue particles represent clean water, the orange balls represent contaminants,” said Ms. Johnson. “So the robots have to drive around, pick up those balls, sort them by color, and then put them in the appropriate pots based on whether it’s a contaminant or a particle. Then, at the end, there’s an onrush of a flood, and they have to go do a pullup onto the bar with the idea that the robot is saving itself from the flood. It’s pretty awesome.”
The teams were obviously happy with their carefully designed bots, but many said they were just as thrilled to be in the capital of the United States for the first time.
However, the high schoolers maintained motivation for a higher purpose — to bring positive change to their communities.
Nabih Alkhateeb, a 17-year old Syrian student on the competition’s HOPE refugee team, says these opportunities are only stepping stones to helping his people.
“Right now in the Syrian war, science is going backwards. A lot of people are out of schools. I’m not in Syria because I’m living in Lebanon now. I’m able to study, but more than 300,000 children are out of school even there,” said Nabih.
In the future, he wants to use robotics in civil engineering to aid his war-torn nation.
“I love buildings and I love how they look. So after I finish my studies, I’m going to go back to Syria and help rebuild what has been lost,” Nabih said.
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