Most kids opt to spend their vacation at the beach, in the park or running around the neighborhood with friends. This summer, a group of young women in Las Vegas are spending their time off diving into STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) on their local college campus.
2023 marks the third year of the Engaging Girls in Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing (GUIC) camp at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas’ (UNLV) Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering. This five-week summer camp teaches middle and high school-aged girls about Arduino programming and robotics design in the hopes of sparking an interest in STEM early and helping them visualize a career in STEM fields, including electrical construction and electrical engineering.
“The major goal of this program is to enhance their self-advocacy and build up their confidence in the computing and engineering fields,” said Mei Yang, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UNLV. Yang leads the program with her colleagues Venki Muthukumar, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Shaoan Zhang, professor of education.
This year, 41 students participated, learning to code, build circuits and more alongside mentors from their local school district, Clark County School District (CCSD), and college students from UNLV. Projects ranged from building an automatic, timed pet food dispenser to an automobile designed to transport people across Mars.
“We’ve shown that with enough effort—on both the student side and the teacher side—that we can go ahead and accomplish great things,” said Adam Billman, CCSD mentor and math teacher at the Basic Academy of International Studies in Henderson, Nev. “They’ve shown that they can take an idea and make it their own.”
Zhang said that the lineup of camp mentors is reflective of the issue that this program aims to change—they are mostly men.
“I told the girls that in 20 years, I want this to be different,” he said. “I want you to be the mentors.”
According to 2021 U.S. Census data, although women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, only 27% of STEM workers are women. These girls are working towards leveling out these statistics.
“I’ve seen many TV shows where the boys are mostly in STEM and they do more engineering work, and females are doing other jobs,” said Josephine Castillo, a 7th grader participating in GUIC camp. “I joined this program because I believe a female can do anything a male can do.”
