海角大神

Growing up in Alexandria, Egypt, Yomna Ahmed Rageb remembers a childhood full of Legos. So when her parents suggested she get involved with robotics, it felt natural to trade her plastic bricks for metal gears.

But when she first joined a robotics team as an 8-year-old, Yomna听found she was the only girl in her group 鈥� and that the boys weren鈥檛 keen on listening. 鈥淭hey're underrating my thoughts, I don't know what to do!鈥� Yomna听recalls telling her parents after frustrating sessions with the boys. 鈥淪ometimes I'm right, and sometimes I'm not, but they just don't accept that there's a girl who can [do this].鈥澨�

Now, eight years later, Yomna听is one of 830 teenagers, including 209 girls, who showed off their robotics skills in Washington, D.C., over the past three days at the inaugural FIRST Global Challenge, an听Olympic-style robotics competition for high-school students from around the world. But on a broader scale, these girls are on the front lines of a global movement of young women seeking to shatter gender barriers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

鈥淎 lot of countries underrate girls so much,鈥� Yomna听says emphatically. 鈥淕irls are just like boys, they can do whatever they want with their minds. They can create the future as well.鈥�

Learning to 'save the world'

Yomna's听story is likely familiar to many young women with an interest in STEM fields, both when they鈥檙e first starting out and later as they try to enter the workforce.听

Globally only听28.8 percent of STEM听researchers are women,听even though more women hold听bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees听than men,听according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).听In the United States, women account for 15 percent of the engineering workforce, despite holding 50.3 percent of science and engineering degrees, according to听the National Girls Collaborative Project. A 2016 UNESCO survey of 110 countries showed that just 44 percent of women with STEM degrees听went on to receive doctorates in related fields, a figure that has remained static since 2008.

Those gender disparities were readily apparent at this weekend's competition, where girls made up just one-quarter of all challengers. And, although there were numerous all-male teams, only six were comprised exclusively of girls.听

For many of the participating students, gaining a toehold in the world of robotics is about more than tipping the gender scales.

鈥淲e women, we need to make a difference in the world, we need to make a change,鈥� says Gregline Kumba Alatt, one of two girls on Liberia鈥檚 seven-person team. 鈥淚 want for all girls to stand on their feet so that we can join together to make the world a better place to live.鈥�

In Gregline鈥檚 home country of Liberia, a 2015 UNESCO report found that only 33 percent of women 15 years and older are literate, compared to 62 percent of men in the same age range. Some 77 percent of girls enrolled in primary school end up attending secondary school as well, but women all but disappear from Liberia鈥檚 statistics on higher education.

For Gregline, 16, her passion for robotics stems from her desire to 鈥渟ave the world.鈥�

鈥淚 feel that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are the key tools to change the world,鈥� she explains, leaning over her team鈥檚 table. Their robot, crowned with a tiny Liberian flag, rests beside her.

Gregline听dreams of becoming a computer engineer, and she says that participating in a STEM event on a global scale has only increased her ambitions, adding that she鈥檚 鈥渄elighted鈥� that she鈥檚 seen so many girls involved.

When asked what it鈥檚 like being around so many young women,听she puts it simply: 鈥淚t鈥檚 something good.鈥�

The clean water challenge

FIRST Global has designed the annual competition to not only inspire young people around the world to get involved in robotics, but also to think creatively about developing solutions to real-life challenges. Each tournament challenge will focus on a different听theme selected from the 14 Grand Challenges of Engineering, a list of pressing issues identified by national engineering academies in the United States, United Kingdom, and China. This year鈥檚 theme was access to clean water. Armed with a software and robot kit, the students competed to create the most efficient purification system. In lieu of getting wet, the robots sorted beach balls 鈥撎齜lue (clean) and orange (contaminated) 鈥撎齮o prove their filtration capabilities.

For many of the participants, the challenge of providing access to potable water resonated strongly.听

鈥淕etting clean water is a problem in parts of my country,鈥� says Charlene Mena Yaa Owu, a 17-year-old from Ghana. 鈥淲hen the waters are dirty, people can鈥檛 bathe, they can鈥檛 wash, they can't do anything to get ready for school, so it鈥檚 deterring everything that we do.鈥�

Women in Africa bear 90 percent of the responsibility when it comes to gathering water, and in some countries walk an hour to find a safe source, according to the United Nations. For young girls this often takes time away from education.

Globally, 884 million people still lack access to a basic drinking-water source, while more than 2 billion drink water that has been contaminated by feces, according to the World Health Organization. As a result of climate change and population growth, WHO estimates that听half of the world will live in water-stressed areas by 2025. Engineering innovations like desalination and recycling wastewater will likely be key in addressing water scarcity.

And for Charlene, her dream of becoming an engineer comes from her desire to help 鈥渇ix鈥� problems, like not having access to clean drinking water. 鈥淲hen I was little I wanted to be a doctor, I wanted to save people,鈥� she explains, excitedly. 鈥淭hen when I started fixing things, I started loving robotics even more because helping people is good; curing people is good; but fixing things that can help cure people is better.鈥澨�

Proudly sporting a pin with the words #LikeAGirl, Charlene听is one of six members of Ghana鈥檚 all-girl team from the Archbishop Porter Girls Secondary School in Takoradi. Wearing brightly colored traditional tunics, the girls are proud of their presence as one of the few fully female teams.听

鈥淏eing an all girls team means a lot to me right now, because it means that it has given us equality,鈥� says Charlene. 鈥淪ome teams are all boys, but then we are all doing the same thing. It's giving us power, courage. We're right now very bold.鈥�听

Although 40 percent of girls in Ghana still lack access to secondary school, their enrollment numbers are quickly gaining on the boys, according to听UNESCO.听However, the gap is large when it comes to female participation in STEM, UNESCO says, citing a Ghana school district where of the 855 girls enrolled in high school only 29 are pursuing STEM subjects.

Emmanuella Baaba Koomson, Charlene鈥檚 teammate, says young women in Ghana don鈥檛 pursue STEM because they aren鈥檛 aware that it is a valid career option. 鈥淭hey are scared, because they don鈥檛 get the support they need,鈥� Koomson says. 鈥淣ot a lot of girls are into science, so to be chosen to represent my country in an international competition was really great.鈥�听

Emmanuella听hopes that her team鈥檚 presence at the robotics competition will help raise awareness that girls can be involved in STEM 鈥� and have fun doing it.