The Robotics Institute

The Girls of Steel, a robotics team composed of high-school-age girls, and the team's robot, Watson, participated in the 10th Pittsburgh Regional FIRST Robotics Competition, March 8-10, at the University of Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center, winning two awards, for Website and for Engineering Inspiration.

The latter award qualified the team to compete at the FIRST Championship, April 25-28 in St. Louis. The team members plan to further hone their skills for the championship by competing in the Cincinnati Regional April 6-7.

The Girls of Steel team includes almost 60 girls from more than 20 area schools. This is the second year that the team has been part of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) program and the second year the team has gone to the St. Louis championship. The team is supported by the Robotics Institute’s Field Robotics Center and a number of academic, governmental and business sponsors.

This year, FIRST teams are competing in a game called Rebound RumbleSM . It is played by two competing Alliances on a flat, 27 x 54 foot field. Each Alliance consists of three robots. They compete to score as many basketballs into their hoops as they can during a 2 minute and 15 second match. The higher the hoop in which the basketball is scored, the more points the Alliance receives.