We are celebrating Girls in ICT Day today (23 April 2020) and two of our own tech girls have been named in the Top 3 of the UTS Girls in STEM Design Challenge in collaboration with the Tech Girls Movement. Sienna and Jazelle of Year 5 designed DOCBOTDRONE in response to the challenge, ‘How might we get a Doctor to patients to collect vitals and not in person?’
The challenge organisers, Tech Girls Movement, said that although the challenge was not a competition they wanted to ‘highlight three amazing solutions that knocked our socks off and are inspiring for all of us!’
For their DOCBOTDRONE Sienna and Jazelle ‘drew empathy maps to really understand the problem for each of their stakeholders and researched existing solutions. They created a very convincing pitch video that explained their solution and showed their prototype – a 3D drawing of the DOCBOTDRONE and a flowchart showing the logic of how it works. Their drone unfolds into a small robot carrying a tablet with the doctor on the screen as well as devices to measure vitals.’
The challenge took place online via the University of Technology Sydney’s virtual classroom (Women in Engineering and It Department) on 22 April. Girls had the choice of several challenges aimed at improving people’s lives while social distancing. They worked in teams to design, create and build solutions using technology, engineering, maths and science. They had just five hours to complete the challenge.
Mentor Daniella di Santo said she had an awesome day supporting our Year 5 Santa Sabina team, amongst the 100 other girls participating.
‘The use of technology was interesting and the teams of girls collaborating online was a great experience’, she said.
‘It was great to give the girls a challenge during the holidays. In this time of isolation, it is interesting to see girls aged 10-13 coming up with some really great ideas.’
Congratulations Sienna and Jazelle and many thanks to their teachers, Elise Kent and Zeina Chalich, as well as their mentor, Daniella di Santo, who encourage and support our students to take up opportunities in tech.
