Our Purpose:
Our purpose is to substantially increase the number of young women pursuing engineering in higher education and future careers.
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Our Values:
1. Impact
Robogals...
Stays focused on effectiveness, strives to exceed all expectations and is relentlessly persistent in seeing plans through to completion.
2. Community
Robogals...
Ensures that all our members, schools, schoolgirls, hos
t universities and partners feel respected, valued and part of the team.
3. Communication
Robogals...
Communicates clearly, thoroughly and frequently amongst our committees, members and external parties.
4. Initiative & Autonomy
Robogals...
Encourages creativity, individuality, and a sense of ownership, and devolves significant authority and autonomy to each of our chapters.
5. Integrity
Robogals...
Does what we said we would do, by when we said we would do it, and stays true to our values, aims and goals.
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The astounding gender imbalance in engineering and technology fields, and the broader problem of an engineer shortage in the United States economy are both profound issues that warrant urgent attention. President Obama said the U.S. must expand its engineering workforce to compete in the global market and stimulate jobs. We fully agree with this statement but are also motivated to eliminate the gender gap within the engineering field.
‘Engineering’ is rarely articulated for young students, especially young women. The word engineering alone is not part of mosts’ vocabulary, let alone considered as a career option. Part of the reason for this is that unlike many other areas of study such as maths, science or literature, engineers rarely become schoolteachers. It is therefore important for us as engineers to present ourselves to the students directly through outreach programs. Robogals targets girls in elementary and middle school with fun, educational robotics workshops that aim to introduce ‘engineering’ into the girls’ vocabulary, and show that it can be fun and exciting. By conducting these activities in a girls-only environment, the classroom dynamic is such that the girls are able to participate fully in the robot building and programming. By taking this systematic approach, we hope that in coming years we will begin to see more excitement for engineering and make a full impact on the community.
