Growing Interest in Robotics & Learning Technology (G.I.R.L. Tech) uses robots to intrigue, empower, and inspire. Our team of eight graduate students is working closely with the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, YWCA Greater Pittsburgh, and Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania to make robotics accessible to a wider audience. Our aim is to create opportunities for young people, especially girls, to engage with robots in ways that are relevant to their lives and will help them build lifelong skills.

Our clients

The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh is an award‐winning, hands‐on exploration space for kids, and the largest Silver LEED certified museum in the country. The Children's Museum strives to:

• nurture children's innate joy, creativity and curiosity,
• provide developmentally appropriate exhibits, programs and opportunities for play both inside and outside the Museum, and
• serve as a resource for families and build meaningful partnerships with schools and community groups.

Today’s kids are digital natives who are highly accustomed to interactive media, and yet new media is rarely used in ways that speak meaningfully to children’s lives. The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh has recognized that children—especially children age seven and younger—need enhanced experiences that use new technologies to emphasize sharing, collaboration, creation, learning and playing.

YWCA Greater Pittsburgh's TechGYRLS is a wonderful group of girls with diverse talents who get together to explore Lego Robotics and computer animation. The girls construct and program robot models made of Legos, and those in the advanced session compete against both local and regional teams. Due to competition age restrictions, their high-school-age participants are in need of new and challenging projects to pursue.

Participation in Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania also develops girls' robotics-related skills. Girl Scouts take part in a variety of activities, including storytelling workshops using the programming tool Alice and visits to the Carnegie Science Center. The Girl Scouts want to motivate girls to stay involved through their high school years by offering more projects targeted specifically towards Girl Scout Seniors (grades 9-10) and Girl Scout Ambassadors (grades 11-12).

Our goal

Our team is working to create a permanent Children’s Museum installation, aimed at ages three to seven, that allows kids to have a first‐hand encounter with a robot. Our robotics installation will encourage children to engage with the robot and influence its behavior, making discoveries about how robots work in the process. The exhibit will focus on kids’ active experimentation with the robot rather than strict take‐away learning objectives.

We are joining forces with local high school girls from the YWCA's and Girl Scouts' robotics groups to design, test, program, and build the Children's Museum installation. The girls are shadowing us as we design and develop the installation, getting an insider's view of our project production cycle, being involved in the exhibit's creation, and visiting a variety of local robotics organizations.

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