Historic majority! Women dominate robotics tournament!

“For the first time in Mexico, 56 percent of the participants in the FIRST Robotics tournament are women,” says Bárbara Gómez, Regional Director of FIRST México. 

“We’re very pleased.  The girls are really involved and really happy. There are several female team captains and we even have teams made up entirely of women,” she said.

Gómez added that women too take an interest in science.

“That’s why we increasingly see the very active integration of girls in all areas of the tournament,” she continued.

CONECTA presents 7 girls from PrepaTec who took part in the regional FIRST at Tec de Monterrey, Monterrey campus.
 

1.- Daniela Saltiel, Team Leader

A sixth-semester student and the leader of the Daedalus 7102 team at the Guadalajara campus, this will be her second year competing in FIRST.

She makes her position very clear: “If there are men in a team, there can also be women.”

For Daniela, her greatest satisfaction is being part of a change.

“It’s to demonstrate that women are also capable of doing everything that men do,” she said.

2.- Eugenia De Jesús, Programming Manager

A fourth-semester PrepaTec student at the Hidalgo campus, who with only 6 months of experience in the field of robotics has already earned herself a place on the Keybot 5716 team.

“When it comes to intelligence, there’s no gender distinction. However, I feel that as a woman I’m better at organizing and I can work better under pressure,” noted Eugenia, who is in charge of programming the robot.

Eugenia sees herself in the future working in areas such as video game development, aviation, or computer systems. 

3.- Sofía Martínez, Team Captain

Representing team Cyberius 6017 from PrepaTec Santa Catarina, Sofía believes that having a female presence maintains peace and balance in the team’s work environment.

This fourth-semester student said that it was a challenge to become captain, as she felt she had been underestimating herself and her abilities.

“But when they realized my potential, everything changed. I became captain and showed them that anything was possible, that gender is no obstacle”, she said.

4.- Ángela Segura, Group President

To be the President of Tectronic, at PrepaTec Celaya, Ángela had to demonstrate her capacity, talent and potential for the job.

“Being a woman, I had to work a little harder than everyone else to get the position. I gradually earned everyone’s respect until I reached my goal.

Being a woman doesn’t prevent me from being the President of a group full of men,” she said.

5.- Miriam Juárez, Logistics

Miriam is also part of Tectronic, from PrepaTec Celaya, where she is in charge of the team’s logistics.

She believes the increase in the percentage of women on the team has helped them to achieve better results this season.

“I would like girls from future generations to see me as an example, to show them that they can achieve anything they set their minds to; to not let anyone tell them that they can’t achieve something,” she shared.

6.- Daniela Gómez, Mechanic

Another member of the Tectronic team is Daniela, who’s in charge of the robot’s aesthetics and assembly of its parts. 

Daniela believes that the women from this PrepaTec Celaya team make a very important contribution.

“I love the fact that the phrase ‘do it like a girl’ applies here. We’re doing things in our own way, that extra feminine touch makes the robot look better.”

7.- Mónica Aguirre, Captain of Finance

Mónica draws on her organizational and management skills to do her job on the Cyberius 6017 team from PrepaTec Santa Catarina.

She hopes that robotics will gradually become a competition with more women, which is why she recommends the following:

“If you want to try something, you just have to go for it, because if you don’t, you’ll never know if you are good at it or not. Never put limits on yourself, there’s always a place for you on any team.

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