ELYRIA, Ohio — A group of high school girls in northeast Ohio is planning on conquering the world championship after taking home the top prize in the state.
The Elyria Robotics X Team calls themselves “The Butterfly Effect.”
“As an all-girl power team, we really wanted to be strong and show other people that we can compete, and we can hang with everybody else,” said Kloe Koepp, a junior on the team.
Koepp handles the coding for their robot, programming it to help perfect its performance.
Then, Mia Yates handles the controls as the team’s “driver.” The goal is to score as many points as possible.
“I just don’t think when I do it,” said Yates, a junior. “’Cause if you think, it just goes wrong.”
It’s a winning combination for the team of six girls that also includes juniors Victoria Jones and Jaymie Reynolds and sophomores Kirsten Young and Abby Young.
“To go into states and win the top award as best overall robot, you really don’t get anything better than that,” Koepp said.
Since 7th grade, the girls have amassed about 60 total awards for their robotics. They said they’re working to break stereotypes and encourage other girls to get into science, technology, engineering and math.
But, there’s one thing better than the state title, and that’s the world championship.
Notebooks showcasing how the girls built and improved their robot will be judged at next month’s world competition in Dallas. Reynolds takes all the notes, a job that requires more than just neat handwriting.
“I have a process my brain has to go through for everything to be like, how does this make sense?” she said. “That’s what I do, and it’s kind of therapeutic for me.”
Koepp said robotics is a constant game of trial and error that can sometimes be frustrating.
“It’s really just something I’ve fallen in love with,” she said.
And the girls are good at it.
“I’m not gonna lie, most of the time, we win,” Yates said. “We get the highest award at a lot of our competitions and we’re grateful for that.”
The team devotes most of their free time to fine-tuning their project, excited for the opportunity to show off their skills on the world stage.
“Even if you don’t do that good, it’s still for the experience,” said Jones.
They just want to live up to their name.
“If a butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the world, it creates a natural disaster on the other side of the world,” said Koepp. “So, we kinda wanted to say, ‘Hey, yeah, we’re making a big impact here, and we deserve to be here.’”
Five robotics teams from Elyria High School and one from Elyria Middle School will compete in the VEX Robotics World Championship May 3 through May 12 in Dallas.
