California-based India Community Center, the Milpitas, announced in its July newsletter that the two-member all-girls VEX Robotics competition team 315Y won the 2021 VEX Robotics World Championships. Indian-American students Amrita Pasupathy and Nidhya Shivakumar comprise the team; these students, from the Harker School in San Jose, California, won the high school section of the competition.
The ICC confirmed that this is the largest robotics competition with 8,600 participants, 1,400 teams and 30 countries participating this year.
Another team also won the Middle School World Championships from the 315 Paradigm organization -team 315T, also an all-girls team. This team had just one member introduced to robotics at the flagship Google Girl Powered VEX Robotics Workshop at Google in 2019.
Team 315 has organized the Girls Robotics Workshop, which is scheduled to be held at the India Community Center on July 31 and August 1. At this event, Shivakumar will be the emcee, hosting the event.
As per the roboticseducation.org website, “The VEX Robotics Competition, presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, is the largest and fastest growing middle school and high school robotics program globally with more than 20,000 teams from 50 countries playing in over 1,700 competitions worldwide.”
“The REC Foundation’s mission is to increase student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students in hands-on, affordable, and sustainable robotics engineering programs. Through remote and in-person activities, students increase their innovative thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills, enhancing their academic journey to build a talented workforce in various STEM-related professions,” the website read.
Thousands of students across the globe get united as part of the event to celebrate their passion for robotics. The goal is to “leverage competitive robotics to see students increase technical abilities while learning workforce skills and having fun with their team.”
The REC foundation provides guidance and resources so that the competitions run smoothly and everyone involved in the event has a memorable experience.
“We encourage you to explore resources here in the Digital Welcome Kit including VEX Robotics Competition Tipping Point summary information, V5 STEM Labs (with free curriculum), V5 Educator Certifications, free software downloads, and much more,” said the website.
