Robotics event inspires future engineers

On a typical day, the Joyce Cummings Center is busy with students, faculty, and staff. A recent event brought a new population to the space – Girl Scouts. Organized by Kat Allen, a PhD candidate in Human-Robot Interaction and Mechanical Engineering, 44 local Girl Scouts gathered in Joyce Cummings Center for a day of robotics activities. 

Ranging from kindergarten through ninth grade, the scouts spent the day immersed in robotics. In the morning, they learned about basic robotics and coding. By the afternoon, they were ready to design and build their own assistive robots using LEGO SPIKE Prime kits and SmartMotors, which were developed in Tufts’ Center for Engineering Education and Outreach. The activities aligned with the robotics badge requirements for each scouting level present.

Allen is a PhD candidate in Tufts’ Assistive Agent Behavior and Learning (ABBL) Lab under Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor Elaine Schaertl Short and in the CEEO Future Educational Technologies (FET) Lab under John R. Beaver Professor Chris Rogers. The AABL Lab focuses on improving AI in assistive robots, particularly for children, older adults, and people with disabilities. The FET Lab is housed within the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach and leverages learning science to develop new STEM educational technologies. Following Allen’s expertise in these two areas, the event focused on assistive technology and accessibility in co-curricular engineering activities. 

New connections spark inspiration  

“The biggest thing that events like this can do is teach young girls that STEM is for them, by showing them that they can do it, that it’s fun, and by showing them that there are grown-up women in STEM,” shared Allen.

In addition to Allen and Short, the girls met a variety of different STEM researchers in the dynamic robotics research community at Tufts. PhD candidates Mavis Murdock, Hayley Owens, and Brennan Miller-Klugman (all CS), graduate student Infania Pimentel (ME), and six Tufts undergraduate students—Jesse Flores, E28, (ECE), Zahir Bashir, E26, and Claire Murray, E28, (both BME), Kate Lindley, E27, (ME), Andrew Barreda, E28, and Dylan Budner, A26,—supported the event. The Tufts students helped the girls make their robot assistive technology designs a reality and demonstrated their own research to the group, introducing the girls to what is possible at more advanced levels.

The interactions between the scouts, students, and faculty throughout the day left the whole group feeling inspired. “My favorite parts from the event were when the girls were struggling to understand something and finally ‘got it’”, said Zahir Bashir, E26, an undergraduate student who helped at the event. “It was nice to see that I was able to help them learn something new.” Allen echoed a similar sentiment, recalling the enthusiasm the scouts had for sharing their projects. 

Speaking about her experience during the event, Short observed, “As someone who works in robotics on a day-to-day basis you can sometimes lose sight of how cool it is.” Seeing the girls’ excitement as they were introduced to robotics for the first time reminded her of her own early experiences in the field. The inspiration went both ways – after the lab tour, one scout reported that she would like to be a robot scientist when she grows up.

Mutual benefits of community collaboration

The event served a mutual benefit, giving Allen an opportunity to test her curriculum and giving the girls a chance to learn more about assistive technology, accessibility, robotics, and research at Tufts. Allen collected research data from some of the participants at the event who agreed to be involved in the study and plans to turn that data into a research paper. She also hopes to share the curriculum with other universities to help those interested in hosting similar outreach events for children or adults.

Allen is a Girl Scout troop leader for middle and high school students in Somerville and has served as the treasurer for the Cambridge and Somerville Service Unit, which organizes troops in both towns, for five years. The collaboration brought these two areas of Allen’s life together and opened Tufts’ research expertise to a wider community.

As for what Allen hopes these Girl Scouts remember from the event? That engineering is for everyone. “I’m hoping to show these kids that, while it does need a lot of ‘school skills’ engineering is not about memorizing things but about creating things, and anyone can do that,” she said. “At the very least, I plan on running another robotics-related workshop next year for the Girl Scouts!”