Servos and smiles at inaugural Girls Robotics Challenge

As part of the challenge, five teams of school age girls from around London have been designing, coding and building robots from sustainable materials over the past six months with the help of a King’s student mentor. In addition to increasing their understanding of robotics and space technologies, the programme aims for participants to develop their confidence and feeling of belonging in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths).

Following two earlier visits to King’s where the girls learned the basics of coding and robotics, and explored the wider university, the group gathered under the watchful eyes of six crack judges who assessed the teams’ performance in two robot driving challenges. Professors Yang Gao and Claire Lucas, as well as Drs Gerard Canal and Naseem Ramli from King’s were joined by Abbie MacKinnon, curator of Space Technology at the Science Museum, and Eneni Abban, an award-winning robotics engineer and Creative Technology Relationship Manager at the British Council. Inaddition to the two on-the-day challenges, the group also evaluated the teams’ robots’ designs and the design journals in which they documented their design journey.

For the first challenge, participants were tasked with building a rover that could autonomously navigate an unfamiliar landscape – the surface of a distant planet – and stop when it discovered a cave. This gave the girls a taste of AI in robot design, as well as a good understanding of environmental sensing. Secondly, teams went head-to-head collecting samples from the planet (some small green “rocks”), to be sent back to Earth for analysis. A range of scoops, shovels and grabbers were on display, shunting the rocks around the arena as fast as possible.

The winning robot, “Henrietta”, was built by students at St Augustine’s CE High School, and featured servo-operated grabbers and movable arms, as well as an impressive turn of speed and distinctively pink colour palette. The team from South Bank University Academy were runners up, with a 3D printed chassis (also pretty in pink) and a remotely controllable arm. The judges were also delighted by robots from Harris Academy Wimbledon, Ark Evelyn Grace Academy and Deptford Green School, who all presented highly creative designs in response to the challenges of the competition.

To wrap up the day, Eneni, one of the panel of judges, spoke to the girls about her passion for robotics and how she became an engineer, all while staying true to herself.

Professor Yang Gao, who spearheaded the project from the start, said:

“I’m incredibly impressed by the skills and determination the students have shown throughout the Girls Robotics Challenge. Their creativity and teamwork in tackling space-themed challenges reminded me why I got into this field in the first place. This is exactly the kind of energy and talent that will drive the future of STEM — and I’m excited to see this event grow even stronger in the years ahead.”

The competition will run again next year (2025-26), and we are already looking forward to welcoming more teams to King’s. More information about the programme as a whole is available here. Schools can express interest in participating by completing this online form by 14 July 2025.