SWE-NY News

February 2011

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The Next Generation of Engineers in Action – the FeMaidens from the Bronx High School of Science Prepare for the FIRST Robotics Competition in NYC  

by Lorraine M. Herger

On Friday, February 11, I left work a little early to travel down to the Bronx High School of Science, Bronx, NY, and visit the FeMaidens team, who are preparing for the FIRST competition.  The competition will be held at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC, March 11-13, 2011.  The FeMaidens are an all girls team dedicated to promoting female participation in science and engineering.  The team was started in 2006, and in its debut year won the “Rookies All-Star Award” at the New York City Regional competition.  Last year, 2010, the team became the regional NY City champions, and traveled to Atlanta, Georgia for the international competition.

Most high schools are very dead around 3:30pm on a Friday – the students are already on their way to weekend pursuits.  I was amazed as I entered the workroom of the FeMaidens team in the basement of the BHS.  A mound of backpacks was in the first room, with students busily working on web projects, in support of the robotics team.  The main room was a literal beehive of activity.  All types of machine tools were in action – from hand tools, to large cutting and sawing equipment.  The FeMaiden team was in the front of the room (a shared space with the boys’ team), divided into four workings groups – electronics, programming, mechanical design, and final build assembly.  I was greeted by both Assistant Principal and team mentor, Mr. Fred Levy, and FeMaidens’ mentor and advisor, Hilary Mallar (mallar@bxscience.edu), who is also a recent addition to our SWE-NY chapter.  This is Hilary’s second year as the team mentor.  Hilary shared the story of the FeMaidens with me over the next 1.5 hours, as well as her own interesting story on how she became a mathematics/computer science teacher and robotics mentor at the BHS.  Before we get to that, let me just provide some background on FIRST. 

F.I.R.S.T (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded in 1989 to inspire young people to participate in science and technology.  FIRST acts on its vision of inspiring young people by running many different types of mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills which can serve as the basis for professional careers and leadership opportunities.  The FIRST family of programs includes Lego League, Tech Challenge and the Robotics competition, in which the FeMaidens are participating.  The Robotics challenge changes each year.  Each team anxiously awaits the availability of the kits, which this year was January 8, and spends weeks brainstorming and designing the attack plan and its implementation.  I should note here that the team does not receive monetary support directly from the school, but relies on private donations to fund its participation.  If you would like to donate, please contact Hilary at the email address above.  The kit alone for this year’s competition cost approximately $5000, so it is easy to see that donors are vital to the team.  This year the challenge is to build a robot that can hang as many triangular, circular and square inflatable shapes on a rack in a short period of time, and have a smaller robot climb up a 12 foot vertical pole at the end of the match (and return to the bottom, as well, since there are several matches!).  It was fascinating to me to watch the girls in action.  The intense discussions, strategizing, sharing and collaboration were terrific to see in action.  Great experience and preparation for later life!  The confidence, the excitement and the ability to articulate exactly what they were working on, and how they were working out the problems, was impressive.  Nicole Calace, Juliet Mullan,  and Lilly Steinberg, who were working on programming and electronics, explained to me how the robot would receive its instructions.  They also let me know that the programming was in Java, and the pluses and minuses of using the Java language.  Amy Lai explained the intricacies of the mini-bot – which by the end of my visit was actually climbing up the pole for the first time.  Phoebe Wong and team were heads down on the pneumatics for the robot.  Hilary explained to me that this was the first year that the FeMaidens were designing pneumatics for the competition.  I was very impressed by the extensive knowledge that each of the sub-teams had on their subject matter.  Hilary told me that none of the topics (other than Java programming) were covered in class materials; rather it was all learned by the team members from manuals, the Internet, and from their mentors. 

The FeMaidens team consists of about forty girls, with a core group of about 20-25.  The team meets Monday-Friday, 3:30-6pm, and Saturday, 10-3pm.  This is a tremendous time commitment on the part of both the students and the mentors.  Yet, from my point of view, as I saw the excitement, the passion and the enjoyment on the part of the students, it is easy to see that this is a labor of love for all involved.  I asked Hilary how she came to be a teacher at the BHS.  As it turns out, Hilary did not start out in the teaching profession.  Hilary worked for six years at IBM, in Poughkeepsie, NY, in the ZSeries (mainframe) processor verification group.  Over time, Hilary found that where she got her greatest satisfaction was in working with students during Engineering week events, and tutoring students as part of her community service work.  Hilary decided to begin part time work on an MAT degree (Masters of Arts in Teaching), and after completing the degree in 2009 joined the BHS faculty.  I think BHS is lucky to have found Hilary, though I think Hilary is just as happy to be at BHS!

Interestingly, Yolanne Almanzar a journalism student at the Columbia University School of Journalism was busy filming the girls during my visit.  Hilary told me that Yolanne and her partner, Joanna Nikas, are there just about every day, and the documentary they produces will be their Master Thesis.  We will post a link to the documentary on the SWE-NY website when it is ready.

In the meantime, I will post updates on how the FeMaidens do in their upcoming competitions this spring.  The first round is the NJ regionals, which will take place March 3-5 in Trenton, NJ.

We wish Hilary and FeMaidens all the best in the upcoming events!