Let's meet the last of our young women, but by no means least. Snigdha has been competing in NZAquabots for several years and is learning all about making motors pivot.... yes that is a hint about our design... more to follow
Let's meet another of our awesome young ladies. Deborah joined us to support our Robocup Jr entry last year and has previously qualified for internationals while at primary school.
Let's meet another member of the team, brand new in late 2024 Jennika joined and brings her desire to be an electrical engineer. She is going to checking out our motors and making them as fast as possible.... but how does one do that when you can only use the three standard motors and the one standard battery????? Stay tuned to find out in the coming weeks
The girls participated in an interview with the Daily Post in Rotorua recently, this is the article. What impressed me most was when asked about how they felt going into these male dominated spaces, their reply was "powerful", "the club is about what we are good at, not what we are supposed to be good at" and "proving them wrong, cos that's why it's a competition". They were intimidated by being in these spaces or doubt that they should be there. That is an awesome belief to have at this age and hopefully they will keep it as they grow
Read the whole article here: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/rotorua-aquabots-champs-head-to-international-seaperch-competition-in-washington-dc/J3WFU7OXEJF35PEBVYXYJYHQR4/
As you know SAGE Engineering doesn't just do one competition. This weekend we are out at the VEX national competition in Auckland. While we are not having as successful a time as we hoped, we are learning heaps, connecting with other girls teams - including Rotorua Girls high (in their first year) and planning for next year.
Our girls come from all different walks of life and have varied interests. This is Nadia.
Maia is our next member. She has learnt a whole host of new skills in her time, including welding and 3D design. Can't wait to see what she does in the future
it's time to meet the girls who you are supporting. They come from a variety of backgrounds, joined young engineers for a variety of reasons and have a range of different ideas about what they want to do in the future.
First up is Siwan Lloyd - Jones.
SAGE Engineering Club not only teaches the girls technical engineering skills, but also a range of soft skills including how to do radio interviews. Here is Siwan (our most senior member) talking to the Morning Report on RNZ about our international robotics competition: https://lnkd.in/gxbGq_jW
So Seaperch is the International competition that is related to NZAquabots in New Zealand. Seaperch is run in the USA during their school year so Internationals are at the end of May/Beginning of June after 3-6months of regional/state events.
This year's challenge is around Coral Restoration. You can see a walk through of the activities that the girls need to do in the link below. They have to do all the activities listed in the shortest amount of time (best teams are completing in less than 6mins). On top of also doing an obstacle course and a 5 page technical report detailing their engineering process and outcomes.
There are several optional activities as well including research into the real world uses of ROV's, outreach to support other local teams, presentations on your unique features. We are going to be aim to do these as well, due to the awesomeness of the girls.
It might be the Christmas break but time does not stop for these girls. In addition to preparing for the International Seaperch/Aquabots Competition, the team is also preparing for the National VEX competition in February. They have been building across the holidays and will continue in January.
