Senior projects are required for a student to graduate at Woodland. Most students pick a typical senior project such as building something, doing an internship, or making a scrapbook; however, that was not the case for Charli Hughes and Yasmeen Galal.
Hughes and Galal have both been involved in robotics throughout high school. As a result, both felt it was only right for them to do a senior project that involved this passion.
“I have been to countless competitions and have always been impressed by all that goes into it,” said Galal. “I always thought it would be cool to host a competition of my own.”
Girl Powered is an initiative to engage more young women in the STEM field and highlight the robotics opportunities that are available to them. Currently, robotics is a highly male-dominated field and this initiative encourages equal representation for women in the STEM field.
“I highly value the message behind this initiative and believe that hosting an event built on this idea is a great step toward supporting women in STEM,” said Galal.
Hughes and Galal both hope to pursue a future in the STEM field so the goal of Girl Powered resonates deeply with both of them.
“Seeing an organization that prioritizes getting more women involved in STEM is really inspiring to me,” said Hughes. “I participate heavily in robotics, and my experience would not have been the same without an environment that’s welcoming and open to women.”
Most senior projects are done individually, but this one has two separate components that connect into one project as a whole. Galal was charged with being responsible for the robotic component while Hughes handled the human aspect.
“I am handling the “robot” elements, meaning I am ensuring that the robots are all inspected and the “fields” are reset for each match, said Galal.
While this project includes Hughes and Galal’s passion for robotics, they still had some challenges. They struggled getting approval for the event as well as not having robot fields.
Despite these setbacks, they were able to obtain support from the club Woodland Worldwide, and recruited the help of fellow robotics programs who provided them with a robot field for the event.
“Originally, Yasmeen and I planned on pursuing the project independent of Woodland Worldwide,” said Hughes. “Eventually we determined that it would be mutually beneficial to partner with [Meghan] Geary and Woodland Worldwide as we sought approval for the project.”
Hughes and Galal felt strongly about this event and the message it delivered. These setbacks, while they caused a slight delay in their planning, did not stop them from hosting this event.
“Because of our setbacks, it was difficult to recruit teams so we had to work all the way up into the week before the event to have enough teams participating,” said Hughes.
Hughes and Galal hope that this event provides students with a better understanding of robotics and many opportunities that students have within the STEM field.
“It’s my hope that this event will show that robotics can be a field for anyone and everyone,” said Galal.
