IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2013 - 41

enough." The same goes for their families and teachers, who have been behind
them all the way.
Fred Stillwell, the teacher who first
introduced Team Shift to the program,
points out that the girls are somewhat
downplaying what they've done. "There
are 30 kids in my class every year who
are all exposed to the same things," he
says. "But these are the four who stuck
with it and really ran with it. The key to
the whole thing is that they are a team.
As four unique people, they brought
together their various talents and far
exceeded what even they thought they
could do."
Though their futures are wide open,
the girls are all thinking about careers
that expand upon their F1 in Schools
experience. Awald and McCoy are both
thinking about pursuing engineering
fields, while Saldanha and Fitzgerald
are less decided but know that they
want to stay connection to the F1 in
Schools program and find a way to
give back to an organization that has
given so much to them. "This experience has exposed us to a lot of different fields," says Saldanha. "We can see
the different places we can go with our
futures."
-Leslie Prives

Exit Is the Way In

in Engineering (WIE), is volunteering
his time to coach an all-girls competitive
team in a robotics club.
Exit 5 Robotics (www.livingstonrobotics.org/teams/fll/exit-5-robotics)
is currently made up of nine sixth and
eighth graders (ages 11-14) in Livingston, New Jersey. Founded in 2010 by
Lam, the members, including one of
Lam's daughters, are a collection of
sisters, friends, neighbors, and classmates who share interests in science,
technology, engineering, and math.
"One of our friends in town had a team,
Landroids, that was pretty successful
at the time, and he encouraged us to
get our kids involved," recalls Lam. His
daughter, Chloe, was intrigued by the
LEGO Robotics kit so, when she was old

enough to join the league the following
year, the Exit 5 team was born.
"It was challenging to put the team
together," says Lam, "because, when
we were first getting started, we didn't
know who would really enjoy being on
the team, so we just accepted kids in
the neighborhood who thought robotics sounded interesting." As the team's
success in the FIRST LEGO League
(FLL) program grew, more children
were drawn in by the premise and, at
times, competition for spots was stiff.
Kelly Eagen, who serves as one of the
team's project coaches this year, says
her 11-year-old daughter, Erin, had to
get creative to prove to Lam that she
deserved the next open spot. "Erin saw
the team doing a demonstration at

The Exit 5 Robotics team.

All-girls competitive team
excels in robotics

It is often said that to develop talent and
cultivate passion in people, we should
"start them young." This is the premise
under which extracurricular activities,
such as sports, or cultural pursuits, like
language or music, become so important in elementary and middle schools.
It is also a key factor in supporting
future generations of engineers, who
need to recognize their aptitudes for science and math at an early age. It is why
William Lam, a member of IEEE Women
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MWIE.2013.2251952
Date of publication: 8 May 2013

Exit 5 Robotics Founder William Lam along with coaches Yitao Yu, Li Zhu, and Kelly
Eagen.

June 2013

iEEE women in engineering magazine

http://www.livingston http://www.robotics.org/teams/fll/exit-5-robotics

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2013