Girls of Steel headed to World Championship
Thanks to their outstanding performance at the Buckeye Regional FIRST® Robotics competition, the 39-member Girls of Steel, Carnegie Mellon University’s all-girls FIRST robotics team, is headed to the World Championship Competition April 23 to 26, 2014 in St. Louis, Missouri. Ellis has nine girls on the Girls of Steel team—more than any other school in our region. The Girls of Steel, in its fourth year, has qualified since its inception for the world championships.
This is the third year in a row the team has won the regional Engineering Inspiration Award, which includes a grant from NASA that covers the team's registration fee for the world championships.
Ellis students on the Girls of Steel are seniors Naoka Gunawardena, Campbell Konrad, and Elizabeth Kysel; juniors Mackenzie Ferris, Heather Harrington and Korryn Resetar; and sophomores are Rachel Cherian, Clarisa Espinoza- Delgado, and Genevieve "Gigi" Nieson. Ellis students play crucial roles on the team. Campbell, Elizabeth, Mackenzie, and Korryn are four of the six members of the drive team. Mackenzie is also the Finance Leader. Heather is one of the team’s two Programming Leaders. Naoka is the Business Co-Project Manager. Elizabeth is the Special Projects Leader and oversaw the Chassis Project for a C-MITES Weekend Workshop. Gigi is Safety Captain. Clarisa is the Scouting Leader at Competitions.
About the Engineering Inspiration Award
The team won the Engineering Inspiration Award at the Buckeye Regionals. This award “celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school and community."
The team also won the Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers at both the Buckeye Regional and at the Greater Pittsburgh Regional. The Entrepreneurship Award “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 team is mentored at the Field Robotics Center of Carnegie Mellon University by CMU faculty, staff, and students as well as by parents of the girls on the team, and others who work at local companies.
According to the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) World Championship website, "FIRST spans the globe, touching the lives of over 350,000 young people in nearly 80 countries with a progression of four after-school programs spanning K-12. [More than] 130,000 passionate adults freely volunteer their time to coach, guide, referee, fund, and do whatever it takes to make FIRST happen... Together, we have become a gigantic family sharing the belief that mankind’s future is in the hands of inspired young people who truly believe that anything is possible. And every year, our family grows larger as more and more kids and adults realize the power of FIRST."
This school year the team accepted four 8th grade interns and will be doing that again. Current 7th graders who want to intern next year, as well as girls in grades 8 to 11 who want to compete on the team, should email girlsofsteelrobotics@gmail.com to learn more about joining the team.
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Ellis students on the Girls of Steel are seniors Naoka Gunawardena, Campbell Konrad, and Elizabeth Kysel; juniors Mackenzie Ferris, Heather Harrington and Korryn Resetar; and sophomores are Rachel Cherian, Clarisa Espinoza- Delgado, and Genevieve "Gigi" Nieson. Ellis students play crucial roles on the team. Campbell, Elizabeth, Mackenzie, and Korryn are four of the six members of the drive team. Mackenzie is also the Finance Leader. Heather is one of the team’s two Programming Leaders. Naoka is the Business Co-Project Manager. Elizabeth is the Special Projects Leader and oversaw the Chassis Project for a C-MITES Weekend Workshop. Gigi is Safety Captain. Clarisa is the Scouting Leader at Competitions.
About the Engineering Inspiration Award
The team won the Engineering Inspiration Award at the Buckeye Regionals. This award “celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school and community."
The team also won the Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers at both the Buckeye Regional and at the Greater Pittsburgh Regional. The Entrepreneurship Award “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 team is mentored at the Field Robotics Center of Carnegie Mellon University by CMU faculty, staff, and students as well as by parents of the girls on the team, and others who work at local companies.
According to the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) World Championship website, "FIRST spans the globe, touching the lives of over 350,000 young people in nearly 80 countries with a progression of four after-school programs spanning K-12. [More than] 130,000 passionate adults freely volunteer their time to coach, guide, referee, fund, and do whatever it takes to make FIRST happen... Together, we have become a gigantic family sharing the belief that mankind’s future is in the hands of inspired young people who truly believe that anything is possible. And every year, our family grows larger as more and more kids and adults realize the power of FIRST."
This school year the team accepted four 8th grade interns and will be doing that again. Current 7th graders who want to intern next year, as well as girls in grades 8 to 11 who want to compete on the team, should email girlsofsteelrobotics@gmail.com to learn more about joining the team.
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