Hello Parallax,
We hope you are well! Thank you so much for all your support for this year’s Summit. Your generous donation helped us host another successful event, with over 170 participants, 40 high school volunteers, and 10 adult volunteers.
This year’s Summit was named Operation: Cyber_Heist, with a theme of mystery and cybersecurity. Under the guidance of our mentors, the participants spent the day acting as “detectives”. They were tasked with helping a world-famous vigilante, La Femme Rouge, navigate high-tech security at the Louvre Museum by applying coding and robotics skills.
For the first part of the day, the girls learned to assemble and calibrate functioning Cyberbots and Boebots. Using Python and PBASIC, they programmed their robots to move, turn, and flash LED light patterns in Morse code. After lunch, the participants rotated through various relay stations, where they solved complex puzzles involving Caesar and Pigpen ciphers to unlock “vaults” and retrieve secret messages.
In between, the participants heard from our two guest speakers, Prathibha Hottigimath, a Cybersecurity Expert at Baker Hughes, and Sharanya Udupa, a Software Engineer at Paypal. Both women shared their experience in the tech field and their recommendation to the girls on how to continue their interest in STEM. We also had groups of adult mentors circulate through rooms, sharing their stories from the tech field and answering the participants’ questions.
We were so excited to see how much fun all the students were having. Everyone was engaged in their bots and made friends with other kids in their room, despite just having met each other. Their energy and enthusiasm is what we strive to foster with this event, kindling their love for problem-solving and programming to create the next generation of Women in STEM.
We are extremely grateful for your contribution of a discount on ten Cyberbot conversion kits, and thank you to Mr. Gracey for coordinating with us. We could not hold this event without your support. Your generosity made this day a reality for every girl in the room.
Thank you again for helping us inspire the next generation of coders, and we hope to work with you again in the future!
Amador Girls Who Code
