WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — In May, the Vex Robotics team at Loyalsock Township Middle School competed in the world competitions in Texas. The team made up of all girls competed against more than 900 teams around the globe.
"Really fun. You got to learn a lot of different things from a lot of different teams from around the world," said sixth-grader Gianna Biacchi.
"It was so cool to see a whole bunch of teams, plus it was a great experience to interact with a bunch of people from different countries," said sixth-grader Margaret Lundy.
Spartronics, a leading manufacturer of military defense and medical equipment, sponsored the team. The company invited the girls for a tour of its Williamsport facility.
"To get them excited in what we do and kind of expand our access to new talent. Obviously, it is going to be quite a few years, but you know they have to at least enjoy what they are going to do or what being in technology means," said Dan Veenstra, the facilities site director.
The young ladies got to learn from engineers and see what they get to do on a daily basis. All four girls told Newswatch 16 that they are passionate about a future in engineering.
"Every computer that they use, every machine that they use, has a certain code that they program into it. Which is really cool, and there are so many different programs that I didn't know existed," said sixth-grader Isabella Allen.
"Building robots is kind of what they do here, and doing this in the future would change a lot," said sixth-grader Madison Perry.
The girls say they are excited to compete again next year and hope they can qualify for the world competition once again.
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