By Katy Savage
Margo Thompson remembers the day she decided she wanted to build robots and pursue STEM for the rest of her life.
She was about 10 years old and building lego robots at a summer camp, where she was partnered with a boy.
“I was sitting there and he was doing it all,” said Thompson, now 16. “I kept trying to get in there and help build it. I kept asking him and he pushed me aside. I asked him again with a little more of a stern tone and he said, ‘it’s because you’re a girl.’”
She decided then to fight for her right to a STEM education.
“It just kind of wrecked me inside,” she said. “I still use it as fuel. It’s amazing in a bad way how little kids have that impression.”
Thompson has been part of the Rutland Area Robotics – IBOTS team for the past three years.
This year, the team traveled to the FIRST World Championship in Houston at the end of April, where they placed 15th out of 74 in their division.
“I was thrilled,” said Dan Roswell, their instructor, explaining the robotics program is more than just building a robot.
“They’re learning leadership, they’re learning communication, project management, working under stress and high pressure,” Roswell said. “They did fantastic. They were flawless as a team.”
To get to the world championships, students are given seven weeks to build the robot, which ends up being the size of a washing machine.
“Students from the Rutland region work after school until 9 p.m. almost every night of the week,” Roswell said. “It’s meant to simulate a real world engineering challenge where you have a deadline you have to make.”
Students have to gain points through a series of qualifiers in New England. Once they make it to the world championship, the robots are put through a game-like challenge.
Last year, robots played a basketball-like game. This year, the robots had to navigate traffic cones and inflatable cubes.
“It was basically like a giant game of tic-tac-toe,” Thompson said.
Thompson was one of the operators this year, responsible for moving one of the robot’s arms.
“I worked hand-in-hand with the rest of our drive team and driver,” she said. “It’s a huge strategy game. It’s about working with each other as much as it’s about building robots.”
Thompson, who is now a junior at Rutland High School, said building robots has helped her build confidence.
“I used to be the most shy person ever and I really grew as a person,” she said. “There’s a saying at FIRST — we don’t just build robots, we build people.”
She now helps teach classes at The MINT makerspace in Rutland to encourage women in STEM. She said almost half of the people on her robotics team are female, up from just a couple a few years ago.
“I definitely want to go into the STEM field and I’m starting to think about college,” she said.
“It made me into this amazing person that I am and being able to stand up for other girls and fight for their right to have a STEM education.”
