By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
BROWNSTOWN TOWNSHIP –Woodhaven High School was awhirl with robots Oct. 10 and 11 as the Goonettes Invitational held its sixth robotics competition designed to encouraged girls to take a hands-on role.
Co-founder and event coordinator Brandon Queen said this year there were 32 different robots representing 41 teams from across Michigan and one team from Indiana.
“We certainly have an excellent turnout and very likely over a thousand participants here, and a lot of teams from a lot of different regions,” he said. “So, definitely there is no shortage of fun to be had.”
Queen said there is a large gender disparity and gap in STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – and a lot of that happens because often, college-bound students haven’t experienced STEM activities, so they mistakenly assume it is not for them.
“However, events like this in high school allow these female students the opportunity to realize that maybe this is for them and it’s something they can do, and once they realize that it is something they can do, then it is something they want to do, then they go for it full-force, and it’s awesome,” he said.
Queen said this year’s entrants included four Downriver teams: the host team, the Woodhaven High School Goon Squad of Brownstown Township, the Trenton TorqueNados, Allen Park Advanced Power, and the Southgate Titans.
Dearborn was represented by two teams: Henry Ford Academy’s Gator-Bots, and Divine Child High School’s Robo Falcons.
Allen Park High School’s Advanced Power robotics team was the ultimate winner, with Henry Ford Academy of Dearborn’s Nathan Gonzales honored as Mentor of the Year.
Queen said the weekend competition has been emotional for him in a very good way.
“We’ve been doing this event since 2019, and I was around as the co-founder and event coordinator then, of course, and when we started it, we knew that it was important, but now we are really starting to see the results or the outcome of it,” he said. “I was standing with two girls, two females, just yesterday, and one of them said, ‘I was at the first ever Goonettes Invitational,’ and one of them said, ‘I was at the second Goonettes Invitational as a student,’ and for one of them it was their first time ever experiencing robotics in any capacity, and now those students are seniors at top-level universities, one semester away from earning their robotics engineering degrees, and they said it all started right here so many years ago, and changed the trajectory of their lives.”
Queen said it is so special for him to hear testimonials like that.
“It makes all the hard work that we put into this event worth it,” he said. “And it proves this event is working, it does work, and they are the living, breathing results.”
Queen said he is pleased that the young women are coming back to volunteer at the event.
“Now that generation is inspiring the next one,” he said. “And eventually not only are we going to be changing lives, we are going to be changing the culture,” he said. “That is so amazing, and I am so proud that I get to be an integral part of that.”
Sophia Jolie Sebastian, a member of the Trenton High School TorqueNados, said she plans to use what she learned in robotics in college as she pursues a career as a mechanical engineer specializing in animatronics.
She said it is so cool to have an event like the Goonettes Invitational, where girls take a lead role in the competition.
“It’s really cool for us, and it’s really cool knowing this is a new thing and we are pushing to be a part of this new thing,” Sebastian said. “Even 10, 15 years ago, when we were younger, it was like ‘we’re not going to host an all-girls event,’ and it’s still a thing where there are a couple teams here that actually had to combine because they didn’t have enough girls on their team to participate.”
She said it is exciting to see the Riveters from Mercy High School in Farmington Hills, an all-female team from a girls’ high school.
“It’s just such a cool push to see,” Sebastian said.
Trenton High School TorqueNados team member Olivia Giorio said robotics has put her on the path of considering a career as an engineer or an electrician.
“When I was younger, I kept finding different things that I wanted to be, and this is the only true thing that I have consistently been thinking about since starting at the high school,” she said.
Giorio said she was in a Lego League when she was in middle school.
“Going from Legos, which could fit in the palm of my hand, to a robot that takes two people to carry it is more complex and the systems are so different that’s it’s very interesting and it’s just really cool to work with,” she said. “I am on build and I also do electrical.”
Giorio said she had to do some diagnostic work with their robot today when they were having communication issues with it during the competition.
She said it was great to see how many teams were participating and supporting women in STEM, as well as pushing them toward a better future.
Sebastian said the competition was “kind of crazy.”
“It’s a feeling of like, whoa, this is a thing and it’s happening,” she said.