Fe Maidens

We are the Fe Maidens, FRC team 2265, comprised of female members from the Bronx High School of Science in New York City.

[profeminist]

Black Woman Engineer Launches 'Blind' Job Match App To Take Bias Out Of Tech Hiring

Lampkin hopes women, people of color, members of the LGBT community and other minorities in Silicon Valley who may feel alienated by job search tools that prominently display one's name and headshot will feel comfortable using Blendoor.

“Stephanie Lampkin learned to code at age 13. By 15, she was a full-stack web developer, fluent in the languages of computer programming. She has a Stanford engineering degree and an MBA from MIT.

Still, she recalls making it to the eighth round of interviews in pursuit of a gig at a well-known tech firm in Silicon Valley, only to be told her background wasn’t “technical enough” for a role in software engineering.

Her app Blendoor lets job seekers upload resumes, then hides their name and photo from employers. The idea, says Lampkin, is to circumvent unconscious bias by removing gender and ethnicity from the equation.

In the course of her research, Lampkin found a National Bureau of Economic Research study showing that a “white-sounding” name (Emily or Greg, for example) can yield as many job callbacks as an additional eight years of experience for someone with an “African-American sounding” name (Lakisha or Jamal, in the experiment).

“It’s quantifiable,” Lampkin said. “We realized that hiding names and photos created a safer space. Women and people of color felt better sharing their information.”

Read the full story here

THIS IS TOO COOL!!! CURRENT MOOD:

THANK YOU STEPHANIE LAMPKIN, YOU ROCK! Here’s hoping Blendoor is a huge success.

[femaidens2265]

Team Dinner 2015-2016

"Don't light anything on fire. Don't stop drawing pigs. Don't forget to thank our incredible advisers for how hard they work. Always use your oxford commas. Keep rocking the green and purple. Don't Worry About It. Remember that you have to be Gucci before you can be Prada." -Violet Killy, former Captain

It was a night filled with laughter, love, tears, and joy as we said goodbye to the graduating seniors from both our team and the SciBorgs, and passed on the torch to our new Captain, Charlotte Kavaler.

Even though we have big shoes to fill, we are so ready for next year. Our team will be better than ever. ☻

See all the photos here.

[femaidens2265]

Squadbot don't need no human to keep it dry. 😏☔️

Read all about our Bronx Parade experience on our blog: https://femaidens.wordpress.com/2016/05/16/bronx-parade/

[femaidens2265]

GOOOOOAAAAAALLLLL!!!! 👐👏👍👌

[femaidens2265]

We had a blast demo'ing our robot at the World Science Festival at Lehman College on Saturday! 😀

Read all about it on our blog: https://femaidens.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/world-science-fair/

[mindblowingscience]

Her Code Got Humans on the Moon—And Invented Software Itself

Instead of just supporting her husband’s career, Margaret Hamilton invented the modern concept of software.

MARGARET HAMILTON WASN’T supposed to invent the modern concept of software and land men on the moon. It was 1960, not a time when women were encouraged to seek out high-powered technical work. Hamilton, a 24-year-old with an undergrad degree in mathematics, had gotten a job as a programmer at MIT, and the plan was for her to support her husband through his three-year stint at Harvard Law. After that, it would be her turn—she wanted a graduate degree in math.

But the Apollo space program came along. And Hamilton stayed in the lab to lead an epic feat of engineering that would help change the future of what was humanly—and digitally—possible.

As a working mother in the 1960s, Hamilton was unusual; but as a spaceship programmer, Hamilton was positively radical. Hamilton would bring her daughter Lauren by the lab on weekends and evenings. While 4-year-old Lauren slept on the floor of the office overlooking the Charles River, her mother programmed away, creating routines that would ultimately be added to the Apollo’s command module computer.

“People used to say to me, ‘How can you leave your daughter? How can you do this?’” Hamilton remembers. But she loved the arcane novelty of her job. She liked the camaraderie—the after-work drinks at the MIT faculty club; the geek jokes, like saying she was “going to branch left minus” around the hallway. Outsiders didn’t have a clue. But at the lab, she says, “I was one of the guys.”

Then, as now, “the guys” dominated tech and engineering. Like female coders in today’s diversity-challenged tech industry, Hamilton was an outlier. It might surprise today’s software makers that one of the founding fathers of their boys’ club was, in fact, a mother—and that should give them pause as they consider why the gender inequality of the Mad Men era persists to this day.

Continue Reading.

[the-future-now-deactivated20170]

All-female high school engineering team creates breakthrough device for people in wheelchairs

A group of female engineers at Berlin High School in New York are building a way for people with disabilities to participate in physical activity.

Their invention is essentially a control panel with a robotic mount and arm that will allow a disabled person without a full range of motion to throw a small object like a ball back and forth. The device is on its way to MIT.

Follow @the-future-now​

[micdotcom]

Yes Mark Zuckerberg! instead of “dating the nerd” we need to encourage our girls to “be the nerd.” The woman’s reaction back to Zuck made this exchange even more inspiring.

[femaidens2265]

We ended the FRC in South Florida with 4 wins, 4 losses and a tie.

We are so thankful for the experience and we hope to learn from this. We look forward to the next build season and we are so excited to compete again next year!

You haven't seen the last of us yet 😉

[femaidens2265]

FRC Team 2265 on Twitter

“Found this gem from the last day of build season. We had a great year! 😌🙌 https://t.co/VFRrkniXqX”

[femaidens2265]

South Florida Regionals, meet Cruisin' B. Anthony. 😁👏

[stuffmomnevertoldyou]

People ask me what’s it like being a girl on a robotics team. My response is, ‘What’s it like being a boy on a robotics team?’

11th grader Lecia Lamb, captain of the robotics team at the STEM School and Academy in Highlands Ranch, Colorado (via stuffmomnevertoldyou)

[qualcomm]

“I really enjoy learning about new technology before it’s released. It’s always so rewarding.” —Yoona Kim

I’m pretty late in joining tech, compared to some people. My parents really wanted me to be open-minded. They wanted me to have as much of a chance as I could. My uncle recommended me to get into electrical engineering, and at first I didn’t have that much interest. But when I went to school, I joined a club and was on the wireless communication team. Through that, I began following the latest electronic products and started searching through every newspaper for wireless and tech news.

I knew about Qualcomm and that it had a college program which took 30 students from Korea and brought them to the San Diego headquarters. I applied and luckily, I was accepted. I got to visit Qualcomm, and we were [divided into] three teams. I was the presenter for my team and got to present our ideas on Next Generation Mobile Phones to Paul Jacobs [Executive Chairman of Qualcomm]. Also, I got to see a lot of new technologies before they reached the market and tried some demos. I was so impressed. Before that I was thinking about engineering, but I wasn’t that passionate or enthusiastic. But the people I met at the Qualcomm College program—those guys were really smart and had good ideas. They impacted me a lot.

I remember asking my mom to buy me LEGOs instead of dolls. I still have LEGOs on my desk. There’s an exclusive LEGO of women engineers and scientists—I bought them and it made me really happy. I’m the only girl on my team. Almost the only girl in my building. It means a lot to me, because while I don’t know the names of all the male engineers, most of them know mine. I felt like I was under more of a spotlight and sometimes that made me feel a lot of responsibility. I think of it more in a positive light—it gives me momentum and motivates me to work hard, be better and give more support to others.

I really recommend students interested in tech to have fun. Gender perception doesn’t matter. Just try as much as you can. When I volunteer for STEM education programs, like maker classes, I see more boys than girls. I want more girls to be curious [about STEM], but first they should play more with this stuff.

Yoona Kim is a senior engineer at Qualcomm. She still loves working with wireless technology and getting to work with the latest tech before it hits markets.

[mindblowingscience]

This Student Adds A Woman In Science To Wikipedia Every Time She’s Harassed Online

For every harassing email she receives, Emily Temple-Wood creates a Wikipedia page for a woman in science.

Emily Temple-Wood, a microbiology student at Loyola University Chicago, has come up with a unique way to combat the online harassment she faces as an advocate for women in science.

For every harassing email she gets, Temple-Wood has pledged to write one Wikipedia article on a woman in science.

She’s been a Wikipedia editor since she was 12 years old. Then, her motivation was to share information she found with the world.

But the online harassment she’s faced has given her an additional driving force. “My motivation is to channel the frustration I feel from being harassed into something productive,” she told BuzzFeed News.

Continue Reading.

[entertainmentweekly]

Marvel launches science program for teenage girls

Ahead of Captain America: Civil War’s May 6 release, Marvel has launched a program to support girls interested in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The “Girls Reforming the Future Challenge” — supported by the National Academy of Sciences’ Science & Entertainment Exchange — encourages female students ages 15-18 in grades 10-12 to submit videos that demonstrate ideas they feel can change the world.

[upworthy]

A crew of 78 women is headed to Antarctica for bigger reasons than research.

"Vision without action is simply draining. Action with vision changes the world."

In December 2016, seventy-eight talented female scientists from across the world will travel to Antarctica for a twenty-day intensive journey to kickoff the Homeward Bound project, which is lead and mostly underwritten by Dattner and her company. This expedition is just the first step in a planned ten-year outreach initiative that aims to establish a global network of more than one-thousand women in the sciences, and empower them to change the world.

By comparison, women only make up an average of 10% of the crews on most Antarctic expeditions. While John Davis is generally credited with being the first man to step foot on the continent back in 1821, it would take more than a hundred years for Caroline Mikkelson to do the same — and another fifty years after that before Diana Patterson became the first female to run an Antarctic station in 1987.

[robocats1699]

Please Help, Someone Stole Our Robot

Last night (3/26/16) someone broke into our trailer and stole our robot, tools, and batteries. We have a backup robot but it is not nearly as well made/polished as this one. We have alerted the police/newspapers but need to find this ASAP before the thieves try to part it off. If anyone in the maple valley/covington WA area has any ideas where it could be, please email [email protected] with the info. (P.S.- If you are the person that stole this, please just drop it off at the tahoma high school, and we might not press charges) (P.P.S.- The collector and shooter were disconnected at the time of the crime, we still have those)(P.P.P.S.- Just drop it off and drive away or something, we don't need to know who it was)

We are so very sad to hear about this! If anyone knows anything or can help this amazing team, PLEASE help them. 

[neuroholtzmann]

the team has actually gotten their robot back, it was missing the roborio and had a lot of condensation, but otherwise it was in tact. They have also had a lot of support from the FIRST WA teams. It was so sweet seeing everyone help them though! Teams who were too far away to help them paid for subway to be delivered to their lab so they wouldn’t be hungry since they had to work really late. It was the cutest thing ever and FIRST is awesome and they’re going to be able to compete just fine.