When sophomore Thalida Noel first came to Capitol College, there was no robotics team in place at the school. That was something she quickly changed.
“I was involved with robotics in high school and when I came to Capitol, they didn’t have a team, so I started one,” Noel said. “I became interested in robots in middle school but I didn’t start competing until high school.”
Less than two years after the creation of the club, the Baltimore native will be speaking at Prince George’s Community College on Feb. 17 as part of Capitol’s Emerging STEM Leaders Program. Noel’s presentation will focus on the competition that Capitol’s Robotics Team will be participating in at the 2011 BEYA STEM Global Competitiveness Competition in Washington D.C.
The new club currently boasts 11 undergraduate Capitol students, five of which will be attending the BEYA competition.
“Students are becoming more involved with robotics earlier in high school and it was only natural that we have our own robotics club,” George Walls, robotics club advisor and director of undergraduate recruiting and admissions, said. “Our students are learning about robotics and engineering in classes all the time. We’ve had all the robotics technology, but never had a club until recently.”
During her speech at PGCC, Noel will discuss the rigors of the competition, in which each team builds a pair of robots that compete against the robots from other schools. Teams with qualifying scores will be invited to the world championships hosted at Disney World in Orlando, Fla. The parameters of the competition were provided to each team in April and students have had months to prepare and plan for this unique opportunity.
At PGCC, Noel will also discuss her personal experience in the robotics field, what interests her and what initially sparked her curiosity with robotics.
Capitol College is dedicated to furthering STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education among its students and in the community. In addition to the Robotics Team, Capitol College hosted the FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff Event in January. Capitol is also currently offering the Developing STEM Leaders Program to Capitol students looking to find careers in STEM fields.
The Emerging STEM Leaders Program which is run in conjunction with Prince George’s Community College is yet another example of Capitol’s involvement with STEM outreach programs, and provides Noel the perfect opportunity to spread her love and fascination of robotics with other students.
For more information on the Emerging STEM Leaders Program, follow the link.