Fourteen young women from FIRST Robotics Team 6004 f(x) Robotics competed at the all-girl Doyenne Inspiration Robotics Competition recently in Cary and took home first-place honors. The team is comprised of students from across Johnston County and is housed at Smithfield-Selma Senior High School. (Photo by Keilana Mutchler)
Local team wins all-girl robotics competition Submitted by SHANNON MANN
Fourteen young women from Johnston County took home top honors at a recent FIRST Robotics off-season competition held in Cary. FRC Team 6004 f(x) Robotics, a community robotics team based at Smithfield-Selma Senior High School, was named overall grand champion at the Doyenne Inspiration Competition held Oct. 23. The all-girl competition is about empowering young female and nonbinary students through FIRST Robotics to become engineers, computer scientists and STEM leaders. Marie Hopper, president of FIRST North Carolina, told the crowd at the competition that she is often asked why she encourages an all-girl competition. “Our young women need to step up to be heard, and to be strong,” Hopper said. 32 | [ JOHNSTON NOW ]
“Less than 18% of the STEM workforce is female, and by fourth grade most girls think they aren’t good enough to do STEM. Doyenne is here to give them an opportunity.” Hopper went on to share statistics of female participation in FIRST NC over the past few years. For years, girls made up 30-32% of participants across the state. However, in 2019 with the start of the first Doyenne Inspiration competition that number soared to 40%. As teams across the state, nation and globe see a resurgence in activity since the pandemic, f(x) Robotics is boasting more female participation this year then any of its past years combined. “We have 20 girls registered to our team this year. That’s 50% of our team,” said Troy Brindle, volunteer head coach and owner of the Gilded Pear in Smithfield. “In the past we were lucky to get three. It’s great to see so many of them getting
involved and wanting to learn more about this program.” Elle Stephenson is a ninth grader at Smithfield-Selma, and a first-time participant on the robotics team, where she is learning to code the robot and work with its electrical components. “When I was younger I wasn’t attracted to this kind of stuff because the boys always turned me away from it,” she said. “But on this team we support each other, and I love that there are so many girls.” During Doyenne Inspiration, Stephenson served as part of the robot pit crew helping to fix problems that arose and transporting the robot to and from game play. During the competition, half the team worked in the pits making last minute mechanical repairs or troubleshooting mechanical issues that happened during game play, updating or fixing code, and serving as part of the drive and operations team during live matches.
