The robotics team at Arizona State University built a robotic submarine that took the top prize in a recent national competition. It then placed third at the RoboSub international competition in San Diego. The university’s robotics team has close to a dozen members. All are women.
Desert WAVE (Women in Autonomous Vehicle Engineering), was established a year ago. It is believed that it is one of just two all-women robotics teams in the world. The other all-women team is at Texas A&M University.
At the RoboSub competition, Hosted by the Office of Naval Research, 55 teams from 12 countries competed in a 16-foot deep testing pool that mimicked being in the open ocean. The autonomous robots had 20 minutes to shoot torpedoes at targets, drive through gates, pick up and use objects, follow acoustic sound indicators to find objects, and perform various other tasks.
In addition to learning about robotics, a goal in establishing Desert WAVE was to start a program for women to build their skills, resumes, and resilience together. The student group meets every week to not only design parts, build and program their robot, but also to talk about the stereotypes and bias that women experience in STEM fields.