On Wednesday, Feb. 21, BotsIQ, the manufacturing workforce development program that’s a part of nonprofit Pittsburgh Chapter National Tooling & Machining Foundation, will host its Girls Exploring Engineering Day event.
It’s the third year that BotsIQ is hosting the event as a part of National Engineering Week. The event, which is expected to draw over 100 girls in grades seven through 12 from various schools and districts, will be held in the morning at Commonwealth Charter Academy’s TechWorks facility at 162 East Bridge St. in Homestead.
The event will feature a keynote speech by Heidi Lagares-Greenblatt, who in addition to serving as software R&D manager for the Data Science group at HP Inc., is a leader and STEM advocate for the Latinx community and women and was the runner-up on season 44 for the TV show Survivor. She holds the record for fastest fire-making in the show’s history, at three minutes and 22 seconds.
The event will then include engineering activities led by industry professionals, with local companies such as Aerotech, Carnegie Robotics, Gateway Engineers, Gather AI, Resco Products and more set to participate.
According to BotsIQ, the event was created in order to help address the gender disparity that exists in the manufacturing and engineering fields.
"Most students do not have opportunities to meet engineers. BotsIQ changes that,” Michel Conklin, BotsIQ’s executive director, said in a release.
