Seneca Valley Student Competes in Worldwide Robotics Championship

More than 11,000 students from 29 countries competed in a robotics championship this week in St. Louis that combined the excitement of sports with the rigors of science and technology. 

The international competition, held at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, is sponsored by a non-profit organization called For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST). Under strict rules and limited time and resources, teams build and program robots to perform tasks against competitors in a series of robotic games.

The Girls of Steel Robotics Team, consisting of students from 12 different Pittsburgh-area high schools – including a student from Seneca Valley -- took part in the first round of qualifying matches Thursday. It is one of 352 teams competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). The FRC teams represent 8,800 students from five countries, including Australia, Canada, Israel, Mexico and the United States.

Girls of Steel member , a junior at Seneca Valley, said she got involved in the robotics teams when she mentored another competition division called the Lego League two years ago. After that, she said, joining the Girls of Steel seemed like a natural fit.

“I would have joined the team two years ago if I had known it would be this much fun,” she said at Thursday’s competition. “I thought it was going to be a bunch of nerdy guys, but I’ve met some lovely ladies, and it’s better than I thought.”

As the name suggests, the Girls of Steel is an all-female robotics team. Based out of the Field Robotics Center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the women hope to be an inspiration to other young ladies entering science, technology, engineering and math-related occupations.

In March, the Girls of Steel took home the Rookie All-Star Award at the Pittsburgh Regional FIRST Competition and earned an invitation to compete in the world championship in St. Louis. 

The international competition has four divisions – Archimedes, Curie, Galileo and Newton – all named in honor of history’s greatest scientists and mathematicians. Teams in each division compete against each other in several qualifying matches. 

The winning teams then proceed to the final division called Einstein, which is the championship game. Qualifying matches for all teams will continue through Saturday morning. The championship matches begin at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

In addition to the robotics competition, the FIRST Championship event also includes the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) for high school students, which features smaller robots. The other two groups in the championship include the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) for elementary and middle-school students and the Junior FIRST LEGO League (Jr.FLL) for 6- to 9-year-olds.  

FIRST was founded in 1989 to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology. The group designs programs to encourage students to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math, while building self-confidence, knowledge and life skills. 

More than $15 million will be awarded to winners in this year’s championship. For more information on FIRST, visit www.usfirst.org.

For more information on the Girls of Steel Robotics Team, visit www.girlsofsteelrobotics.blogspot.com.