Inspiring the Next Generation: My Experience with Young Women In Engineering (YoWIE) 2025
“You can’t be what you can’t see.”— Marian Wright Edelman
That’s exactly why initiatives like Young Women In Engineering (YoWIE) matter. They give young women not just a glimpse into the world of engineering, but a chance to be engineers — even if just for a few days. This year, I had the privilege of being on the assisting side of YoWIE— a fantastic, free three-day workshop aimed at inspiring young women to discover the exciting world of engineering. Organised by UNSW Canberra, YoWIE brings together high school students from across Australia and offers them hands-on opportunities to explore different fields of engineering.
This year’s event took place from 15th to 17th April 2025, and it was incredible to see nearly 100 young women in Years 9–12 come together, curious and eager to learn. The workshop’s mission is simple but powerful: to discover potential, foster curiosity, and empower the next generation of female leaders in engineering.
YoWIE 2025 featured eight major activities, each hosted by different engineering schools at UNSW Canberra:
- Earthen Dam — Civil Engineering
- Flight Dynamics & Gas Turbines — Aerospace
- Flying — Aviation
- Lawn Mowers — Mechanical
- Lost in Space — Space
- Controls — Electrical
- Robotics — Software Engineering
- YoWIE Tech — Mechanical
I was especially proud to be part of the Robotics team, representing Software Engineering. Together, we conducted engaging programming activities where participants got a hands-on experience working with robots, learning the basics of coding, and seeing firsthand how software brings technology to life. Watching the students’ faces light up as their code made the robots move, respond, and complete tasks was a brilliant reminder of why initiatives like YoWIE matter so much.
Robotics in YoWIE 2025
I was proud to be a part of the Robotics team, which delivered some of the most interactive and dynamic activities of the event. Hosted by the School of Systems and Computing (SysCom) at UNSW Canberra, our team of six, led by Dr. Heba El-Fiqi, included five enthusiastic PhD researchers — Noha Mohamed Abuaesh, Sara Maher Salem Mohamed, Ettilla Mohiuddin Eumi, Reda Ghanem, and myself, Wasura Wattearachchi.
Together, we designed and ran a series of programming challenges using a trio of versatile educational robots: Sphero Bolt, Sphero RVR+, and Cue.
Meet the Robots
To bring our activities to life, we used three different robots, each offering unique capabilities and learning opportunities:
- Sphero Bolt: A spherical, app-enabled robot equipped with an LED matrix and various sensors. It’s perfect for block-based coding and can be programmed to move, change colours, and react to its environment.
- Sphero RVR+: A rugged, tank-style robot with a range of sensors, including colour and light, and a programmable LED light. It’s designed for advanced challenges and interactive games.
- Cue: A character-driven robot with expressive interactions, capable of proximity sensing, line following, and responding to commands. Cue is ideal for introductory robotics and maze navigation tasks.
For YoWIE, we primarily used block-based programming, allowing students to visually drag and drop code blocks, making coding fun and accessible for beginners.
The Activities in Robotics
We organised six engaging activities, each designed to encourage creativity, logical thinking, and teamwork. Students worked in pairs where all the student pairs took part in a three-hour session, split into two halves of 1.5 hours, with a 30-minute break in between. In the first half, teams could pick from Games 1, 2, or 3, completing as many as they could. After the break, they tackled the remaining three games, creating an experience that was both structured and flexible, allowing them to move at their own pace.
Game 1: Pop the Balloons (Cue)
In this lively challenge, students attached a balloon popper to their Cue robot. Starting from a marked line, they programmed their robot to move along a T-shaped track and pop balloons placed strategically along the way. The aim was simple — pop all the balloons in the shortest time possible. This activity tested both programming skills and strategic movement planning.
Game 2: The Toss Game (Sphero Bolt)
This team-based game turned coding into a playful guessing challenge. Students programmed the Sphero Bolt so that its LED matrix would turn green and play a random animal sound when tossed. When caught, the robot would switch to red, prompting the catcher to guess the sound. To add a twist, participants were challenged to implement a timer, turning the activity into a race against the clock while encouraging collaborative coding.
Game 3: The Coloured Map (Sphero RVR+)
In this colour-sensing adventure, teams programmed their Sphero RVR+ to detect different coloured spots as it moved along a path. The robot’s main LED would change to match the colour it detected, while its direction of movement depended on the colour beneath it. The ultimate goal was to navigate the RVR+ quickly and accurately to the black finish line, making real-time decisions based on sensor feedback.
Game 4: Maze Navigator (Cue)
Students faced an intricate maze in this task, where they had to program their Cue robot to safely travel from either of two entry points without touching the maze walls. By using Cue’s proximity sensors to detect and avoid obstacles, participants learned how to implement conditional logic and refine movement commands — essential skills in autonomous navigation.
Game 5: Hockey! (Sphero Bolt)
In this competitive challenge, two teams went head-to-head, guiding their Sphero Bolts towards a single goal. The robots would spin when not illuminated, and when a flashlight beam hit them, they would zoom off in the lit direction. The LED matrix displayed an arrow indicating the heading, adding a visual cue for strategic gameplay. The no-hands rule made this game especially exciting and taught students about sensor-triggered actions and speed control.
Game 6: Freeze Tag! (Sphero RVR+)
A high-energy, collaborative game, Freeze Tag paired two teams as runners and chasers. The runner’s RVR+ would cruise at a steady pace, changing direction at intervals while displaying a blue LED. If a chaser’s RVR+ came close enough to send a broadcast message, the runner had to stop, change its LED to red, and play a sound. The extra challenge was to later code a new communication channel to “unfreeze” the runner — encouraging students to explore message broadcasting and robot-to-robot communication.
My Experience on the Ground
One of the most valuable parts of this experience for me was getting the chance to work directly with high school students. It wasn’t just about teaching them how to program a robot — it was about understanding how they think, how they approach problem-solving, and how they react when faced with a challenge.
This gave me hands-on insight into the way young minds engage with technology. I learned how to adapt explanations on the spot, gauge when a team needed a nudge in the right direction, and when to step back and let them experiment on their own. It was fascinating to see how differently each pair of students approached the same task — some diving straight into trial-and-error coding, others carefully planning every move before hitting ‘run’.
This experience also taught me the importance of creating a positive, encouraging environment. Seeing a student’s face light up when their robot successfully navigated a maze or popped a balloon was an incredible reminder of why events like YoWIE matter. It’s about sparking curiosity, building confidence, and showing these young women that engineering is not only for them, but something they can excel at and lead in.
Working alongside my fantastic team and watching these students embrace robotics so enthusiastically gave me a renewed appreciation for outreach initiatives like this. It’s one thing to work in research and labs — it’s another to directly inspire the next generation of engineers.
Beyond the Robots
Of course, YoWIE wasn’t all about coding and robots. One of the best parts of being involved in events like this is the chance to catch up with colleagues and make new memories together. Between the busy activity sessions, we made the most of our tea breaks and lunch hours — sharing stories, swapping research updates, and having a good laugh over the little surprises that always come with running hands-on workshops.
And then there were the selfie moments! It’s almost a tradition now that whenever the team gets together for outreach, we somehow end up with a growing collection of fun group photos. Whether it was with the students, alongside our robots, or just candid shots of us winding down after a busy session, those photo moments captured the spirit of the day perfectly — a mix of excitement, teamwork, and genuine joy in what we do.
It’s these little moments in between the structured activities that make initiatives like YoWIE extra special. The conversations over a cuppa, cheering on a tricky robot run, and sharing a group laugh over a rogue robot crash — they all added to an unforgettable few days.
Wrapping Up
The Robotics stream at YoWIE 2025 was a wonderful blend of fun, learning, and teamwork. It was incredibly rewarding to see the students’ confidence grow as they solved problems, debugged code, and celebrated their robots’ successes. Events like these aren’t just about introducing young women to engineering — they’re about showing them they belong here, and they can lead here too.
Being part of this initiative alongside my passionate teammates and driven supervisor was an absolute privilege. I’m already looking forward to what we’ll dream up for YoWIE 2026!
Thank you!
