All-Girls Robotics Team From Fairfax County Goes To World Finals

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA—An all-girls robotics team from Northern Virginia is breaking barriers as it heads to World Robot Olympiad International Finals to represent the United States.

Absolute Zero, a team made up of female students from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, became national champions in the regular senior category at the World Robot Olympiad Nationals on Sept. 15. The team is part of RoboticsForYouth, a group of teams aimed at promoting interest in STEM among students.

The team, made up of junior Neha Bhat and sophomore Nithya Chintalapati, will compete at the international final in Thailand on Nov. 16-18. They will be the first team doing so from the DC metro area and the only all-girls team representing the U.S.

The girls are passionate about encouraging girls to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers. The pair started STEMPoweringGirls with this objective. They hold robotics programming and Java programming classes and workshops while mentoring junior robotics teams.

"Participating in robotics competitions has greatly impacted my life and given me so many more opportunities than I could imagine," writes Bhat on a GoFundMe page for their trip to the international final. "My goal is to encourage young girls to pursue robotics and STEM."

Chintalapati has been participating in robotics since 4th grade and wants her work to translate into medical advancements. "I want to balance STEM and human compassion with remarkable abilities to help people from all walks of life," she writes on the GoFundMe page. "Using Artificial Intelligence/Robots, I would like to revolutionize the organ transplants in the medical world."

The team is raising money for the trip through a GoFundMe page and sponsorships from family, friends and local businesses. The registration fees, transportation costs, housing and food is estimated to be $4,000.

Image via GoFundMe, a Patch promotional partner