Engineers of the Future

O Magazine online, May 2009, By Sara Sugarman

At the FIRST Robotics Competition, three all-female teams are helping to rewire a male-dominated profession. Team: The Fire-Breathing Rubber Duckies Hometown: Portland, OR Tesca Fitzgerald, age 12: "I wasn't very interested in technology before, but FIRST has inspired me to become a computer software engineer. I already know four different computer programs. Last year I found a way to enable the robot to read and write text files." Taytlyn Fitzgerald, age 14: "When I was only one of two girls on a team, it was hard. I spent that entire year sitting on a radiator watching the boys program the robot. Our coach said, 'Boys are the surgeons and girls are the nurses: You hand the boys the pieces to build the robot.' I knew better." (NOTE: Taytlyn's experience she is referring to was NOT on a team at Village Home.) VIEW ONLINE STORY