One of the Girls, using a degree in mechanical engineering as a robotics mentor
Tim Bouraoui gives back as a robotics mentor at St. Maryās Academy
Magness Arena is in such a frenzy, the eye doesnāt know where to focus. The main attraction is the annual that brings Colorado high schoolers to the æģ»īapp campus.ĢżBut the stands are a palette of painted faces, dancing mascots and screaming students.
As robot 5493 enters the fray, eyes dart to the soprano cheers rising from the team in the white shirts that scream even louder: āSilly boys, robots are for girls.ā
āIsnāt that awesome?ā a mother from a competing school says to a friend. āItās an all-girls team.ā
The SMAbotics team, incorporating an acronym for isnāt the most established team here. Nor is it the most successful. But it is one of the most spirited.
One of the students has just spotted the teamās biggest cheerleader. āTim!ā she yells, beckoning Tim Bouraoui, a junior at æģ»īappās who, while not a female, has certainly become one of the girls.
For the last eight months, Bouraoui, a computer engineering major, has devoted up to 10 hours a week to helping the team. Heās a former high school robotics champion and a volunteer mentor, bringing his love for the program to 25 girls who are eager to soak it up.
āIām just proud of them,ā Bouraoui says. āI want [them] to go show up some of the other teams that are all guys.ā
Before the story goes any further, Bouraoui wants to set the narrative straight.
despite making up half of the U.S. college-educated workforce, women only represent 29% of professionals in the science, technology, engineering and mathematic (STEM) fields. Thatās a problem, he says, and heās thrilled to be exposing the team to things like computer-aided design.
But as a male volunteer for SMAbotics, Bouraoui also doesnāt want to be seen as a gatekeeper, granting young women access to the field he loves. āI am enabling them,ā he explains, ābut Iām just enabling them as engineers ā not as women in engineering.ā
That means Bouraouiās role is multifaceted. Heās a teacher, a friend and an ambassador for the sciences. Heās watched the team take a standard set of parts and design a robot from scratch. And though some may wonder if the experience is different working with an all-girls team, Bouraoui says he has hardly thought twice about it. āThe robot gets called ācuteā a lot more than it did on my [high school] team,ā Bouraoui says, laughing, but otherwise thereās no difference.
Though the girls on the team certainly notice a difference with Bouraouiās presence. āHe's always supportive,ā says Lizzie Cave, a sophomore. He's very comforting. He has knowledge about everything.ā Adds junior Jenna Cerasco: āHe's got a great presence. He's fun to be around and talk to.ā
Bouraoui found SMAbotics while volunteering at last yearās FIRST competition. The team didnāt always have the highest-scoring robot, but their attitudes were second to none. Wanting to get involved, he contacted the teamās head mentor, Dave Gesler (BS ā91, MS ā91), who in addition to holding two æģ»īapp degrees also had worked at the æģ»īapp-based Denver Research Institute.
āTim is an amazing guy and heās just awesome with the girls,ā Gesler says of Bouraoui. āThey connect with him because heās not that far away from them [age-wise], but they see where heās at and what heās doing. And they listen to him and they are really interested in asking him questions about his experience with engineering school, because a lot of these girls plan on going onto engineering at a collegiate level.ā
The teamās future is what excites Bouraoui the most. SMAbotics posted a very respectable result at the Colorado regional competition, placing 25th out of 52 teams, and interest at St. Maryās Academy is growing.
Bouraoui will be back next year to provide the team with guidance and mentorship in between class, homework and jobs in the æģ»īapp Maker Space and with a pair of student technology startups. In addition to volunteering, he is also helping organize a that will bring middle school girls to æģ»īapp to learn valuable STEM skills.
āAs an engineer and someone who wants engineering to continue to grow, it doesnāt make sense to me to only use half of our brain power and cut out the entire female side of things,ā he says.
You can be sure Bouraoui will be a loud voice for the cause, just as he is at the Ritchie Center competition when the girls ask him to lead a cheer. He leans back, cups his hands around his mouth and yells: āHow do you feel?ā
āWe feel good!ā they scream in response, clapping. āOh, we feel so good!ā