“It was such a feeling of awe,” recalls 12 year old Alice Duffy, describing the moment her robotics team were announced as the overall winners of the VEX IQ All Ireland Robotics Competition.
Duffy is part of The Steminists, a group of five students from Co Offaly, who made history earlier this year when they became the first all-female team to win the competition. The 12 year-old first year student is the team’s builder and game analyst.
“It was incredible… because there were a lot of boys teams there, and it was just really cool to show them we can do just as good as they can,” she tells Róisín Ingle on the latest episode of The Irish Times Women’s Podcast.
The team of young women, who range in age from 12 to 14, impressed the judges at the competition with their robot, Agatha Trunchbull, affectionately named after the main antagonist in Roald Dahl’s Matilda.
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But creating Agatha came with its challenges for the group. “It is quite difficult because it’s more trial and error…you don’t know what’s going to go wrong and how you’re going to fix it,” explains 13-year old Rachael Ebenezer, the Steminist’s research, strategy and team coordinator.
Following their historic win, The Steminists will travel to Dallas, Texas this month to represent Ireland at the World Robotics Championships. It’s a dream come true for the girls and their science teachers, Sindy Meleady and Aisling Burke.
“We knew this was a very special team. We knew it was a very special robot. It was very tense down there,” says Meleady, who is anticipating even tougher competition at the World Championships.
“There’s going to be over 300 teams from around the world and some of those teams are well resourced, so much more than a little all girls team from Tullamore could ever be”.
Whether they take home a prize or not, Duffy says, “I’m just really looking forward to the whole atmosphere, seeing what the other teams have, and just going with the people I’ve worked with for the past eight months. It’s gonna be so good.”
You can listen back to this episode in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.
