Rock N' Roll Robots stand out amongst the boys
The Pasadena Rock N’ Roll Robots dominate the robotics scene in Southern California. Not only were they recognized at the White House Science Fair last month for their efforts, they’re also one of only four girls teams in the nations.
“There’s this whole idea like, Oh you’re a girl, you can’t build robots or anything like that, said senior and team captain Erica Blanchard, “which is totally insane because we beat the guys out there better than anyone else.”
But the girls weren’t always so dominant.
"Our very first competition we finished 2nd to last only behind a team that got disqualified, so we were a little disheartened,” said recent graduate Taylor Halsey.
Four years later, the girls built a robot, Johnny Five, which qualified for World’s. Johnny Five’s mission was to pick up whiffle balls and shoot them into a basket. Some girls on the team drove the robot, while others used computer code to tell it what to do.
Freshman Rebecca Boisclair said, “Most of the teams out there are all or mostly boys, there aren’t many girls, and the girls won’t be able to do as much, like they’ll say the girls can go over there and make posters and the boys can build the robots.”
The team takes competitions so seriously that they keep charts on every team they’ve faced. They use scouting reports to mark each teams strengths and weaknesses.
They don’t mind being the only girls team around. In fact, they like standing out.
“It can be a little intimidating working with guys especially since they think the boys know everything most of the time so having all girls makes it easier to say,” Halsey said, “Oh yes I actually can do this’ and when you actually beat the boys in competition that’s a little added bonus.”
The team hopes that its accomplishments will inspire other young girls to follow its path.
“All the teams are staring at you and they are admiring you and saying, Boisclair said, “Okay we have to live up to them next year’ and we’re an all-girls team standing up there going, ‘Yeah that’s right, we’re an all-girls team, yeah, we won.”
You can catch the Rock N’ Roll robots in the first competition this year on December 11th at San Marino High School in Pasadena.
