Robogals: Encouraging Girls into Engineering
Lara Antoniolli, Regional Mentor, Robogals Asia Pacific
June 2015
Robogals is a global not-for-profit organisation that aims to encourage more young girls to consider studying engineering at a tertiary level. It was founded by 2012 Young Australian of the Year Marita Cheng, in 2008 at the University of Melbourne after she was surprised at the lack of women in her engineering class after moving from Cairns. We provide free engineering and robotics workshops for students between the ages of 8 and 17 in order to show them that engineering is a profession that women can do and succeed at. Our main form workshop utilises LEGO NXT robots in order to teach the students simple programming, teamwork and problem-solving skills.