While this has been an unprecedented year for everyone, the Girls of Steel lived up to their reputation of representing Rosie the Riveter—exceeding expectations and by delivering quality programs to our community. Below is a recap of some of the highlights from 2020. Details and more photos are available in the blog posts linked below. Enjoy!
It’s January 2020 and everything is on track with the FIRST organization’s game reveal at kickoff on January 4th and the Girls of Steel built a 120-lb. robot, Europa, for the Infinite Recharge competition season. In February we hosted several local robotics teams for a Week Zero scrimmage, showed off our new full-size practice field at Carnegie Mellon to the community, and later participated in the Miami Valley Regional in Ohio, a Week 1 event, 2/27-2/29/2020. Shortly after, the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, and everything came to a halt – the Greater Pittsburgh Regional scheduled in March was cancelled and going to any more competitions looked grim.
In March Girls of Steel went virtual and immediately jumped into action, pivoting from hosting a Women in STEM panel of local women in tech at the Greater Pittsburgh Regional, to hosting a successful Zoom webinar. In April we adapted the Boomtown Build FLL Jr robotics program for K-3 girls and boys, and even held a virtual Greater Pittsburgh Regional Robotics showcase with 20+ teams! In the following three months, we held a Gala honoring our graduating seniors and celebrating our 10th year in FIRST, produced a video for the National Science Foundation and a season re-cap video, created a thank-you video and digital card for healthcare workers, and several Girls of Steel volunteered and continue to serve as “bug trackers” for CMU’s COVIDCast website.
During the summer months the Girls of Steel reorganized the structure of the business and tech subteams and offered three weeks of virtual summer camps to over a 100 middle school boys and girls, with 19 of the campers joining our program in the fall. (Read about the camps here and here.) New this year is a group of students that formed a partnership committee designed to connect with sponsors and better understand what they represent and determine if there are opportunities for the girls to engage with them and for them to engage with us. We also formed an Advocacy sub-team with the goal of writing to the FIRST organization to convince them to offer an award that recognizes teams that put forth the best effort in promoting robotics & STEM in their communities. The Girls of Steel reviewed the “Building Blocks of STEM Act” that was passed and signed into law a year ago. With assistance from CMU’s Government Relations in D.C., they are also reaching out to political advocates of STEM.
By September we were ready to start a new season and our K-12 programs began. Although our emphasis remains with our 8th-12th grade students (68 students – 54 FRC and 14 FTC), we are just as committed to ensuring that our reach includes boys and girls in lower grades (37 FLL students). In October we had a guest speaker, and in November we presented at the SWATposium, a conference hosted by a FRC 771, SWAT, a Canadian all-girls led robotics team. Finally in December, the Girls of Steel wrapped up the year with a FIRST Ladies game night, a “Rosie Talks” program featuring girls and women in STEM from Pittsburgh, and even our annual holiday party with online games!
The End!
Happy New Year! See you in 2021 with even more!
Reach us at girlsofsteelrobotics@gmail.com