Robots, Engineering, and Me - A Young Woman's Perspective

Hi all,
I’ve already posted an eighteen minute video, so I figure you probably don’t want to read another three hundred page essay about my TEDx talk. It was an insane opportunity to receive, to prepare for, and finally, to perform.

If you don’t have the time to watch the entire video, that’s okay! Here’s a short breakdown!

• Joining FRC 2826 Wave Robotics completely changed my life
• Women during WW2 - more women in the workforce!
  • In the aviation industry, women went from making up just 1% of the workforce to nearly 65%!
• Admiral Grace Hopper - yes, the one the field at champs is named after
  • Created the first compiler (and no one believed it)
  • Helped create COBOL
  • Coined the term “debugging”
  • Holds over 30 honorable doctorate degrees!
• Margaret Hamilton
  • Worked on code for the Apollo command module (a 70lb portable computer!)
  • Worked with only 13,024 “words”
  • Helped save men during Apollo 8
  • Basically created the field of software engineering
• I got sucked into robotics thanks to amazing mentorship and an amazing team!
• Women make up less than 25% of STEM jobs
  • Racial gap as well
  • I had like six pages of statistics but I had to edit them out
• How do we help
  • Combating implicit bias
  • Great female mentors!
  • Social relevance of STEM
  • Introducing girls earlier
  • Being a role model!
  • As a girl, keep a growth mindset!
  • Take every opportunity you are given to learn
  • Create a sense of belonging in the environment
    • One place where I felt this was an all girls competition - Indy Rage!
• Acceptance is super important!
  
• “We need not wait to see what others do”- Ghandi
  • We need to do it ourselves. We need to be the change.

I was incredibly thankful for the opportunity and I hope to keep creating change in the world - whether for this initiative or any other.

Thank you for making the world a better place with me,

Kiran L. 2826

P.S. This was the first and only time I’ve worn make-up. How do people that wear it everyday do things like drink water?!

-Kiran L. 2826