Project Artemis: a Step Towards Bridging the Gender Gap in Robotics
Project Artemis was started in April 2018 with the aim of stoking the interest of girls in robotics, due to the extent of gender disparity.
Project Artemis is a sub-branch of Cupertino Robotics and a form of outreach. High school girls in Cupertino Robotics mentor middle school aged girls through workshops where they learn about robotics and construct Arduino Robots of their own. Upon discovering that the decline in girls joining robotics took place at the middle school age, the focus is on middle school girls, with the goal of sparking interest and expanding the exposure to support young girls in STEM. The hope is to combat the issue of an uneven gender dynamic by striving to create an environment where girls can feel empowered and comfortable in order to gain knowledge that they can then apply in the future. The girls learn valuable collaboration and leadership skills and strengthen their knowledge of technology as well.
There have been 3 events so far, each about 4 hours long. There, girls start learning the basics of hardware, software, and electrical. During these workshops, mentors helped them build and wire the Arduino Robot, as well as code the basic commands to go forward, backward, and in different directions. The most recent event took place on November 16, 2019. Middle schoolers from Hyde and Lawson attended, along with 10 high school volunteers as their mentors. They were introduced to FTC Robotics to encourage them to join when they enter as Freshmen. Along with learning about the parts and function of an Arduino Robot, they were introduced to software, hardware and electrical aspects of Arduino robot programming. They were taught to move the robot forward and backward, and later given different challenges to move the robot through more complex patterns.
Team leads further hope to host a similar workshop to the one described above, and are working on adding components like sensors to the Arduino robots to increase the difficulty level. They plan on giving the girls an opportunity to try their hand at FTC related robotics challenges. Future workshops will give the girls more time to work with their robots to fix any bugs if necessary.
The overall mission of Project Artemis is to bridge the gender gap that currently exists in Cupertino Robotics and the STEM community as a whole. Amidst Silicon Valley, where there is an abundance of STEM careers, it is important to make sure that these girls have equal access to these opportunities, which can start with making sure they have a love for STEM at a young age. Project Artemsis’ goal is to make sure that no girl feels out of place in robotics simply for being a girl. In future years they hope to expand with many more attendees, and host more workshops about different robotics-related topics. Through the project, the team’s most rewarding experience is seeing the middle school attendees enjoy themselves and mentor the newer middle school girls once they join Cupertino Robotics.
