We are happy to share our Jumpstart cohort 3 student’s experiences and accomplishments. The reflections from these Jumpstart students reinforces the need for these types of programs and we extend our gratitude to the participating companies for their dedication to these students.
The Jumpstart program aims to encourage and empower diverse high school girls to pursue careers in robotics and promote the diversity of the robotics workforce. The program does this by providing a solid foundation of technical skills as well as professional networking skills to enable these students to be able to pursue their ambitions in the technology sector with confidence.
The Cohort 3 program curriculum ran from January to May 2023, meeting every Saturday and during school vacation and concluded with professional internships.
In August the students had a final session including the opportunity to share their internship experiences with each other through presentations to the group.
Sana (UMass Lowell incoming freshman) and Nicole (NCDS senior) had their internship at Odeh Engineers. Odeh Engineers is a nationally recognized structural engineering firm with a team that brings creative and innovative thinking to life by leveraging cutting-edge technology. At their internships, Sana and Nicole had the opportunity to use Autodesk Revitt and work on Beam Analysis/design as well as joist exercises. They enjoyed going on several sites for field inspections. This included The MIT met warehouse and the cruise port. This experience allowed them to gain hands-on exposure to engineering.
Christiana (MIT incoming freshman) and Amy (Northeastern University incoming freshman) enjoyed internships at Maglev Aero. Chrissy said “My internship at Maglev Aero was my first real job, made possible by the Jumpstart program. Through this opportunity, I was able to immerse myself and freely explore technical spaces full of like-minded and passionate individuals. I became more proficient in previously unfamiliar tools like Git, Kenesto, Altair, AWS, VS code, Python, MATLAB, and Solidworks.
This transformative experience has not only set a strong foundation for an engineering career but has also ensured that I am prepared for any challenging learning experience, given the resources, skill sets, and support system to do so. I am incredibly grateful to have had the rare opportunity to become directly connected to those at the forefront of the robotics industry, with the enduring camaraderie of my cohort and the MassRobotics community.”
Patricia (Umass Lowell incoming freshman) and Veralis (Umass Boston incoming freshman) worked at Duckietown where they had the opportunity to work on a newly developed drone kit, assisting with the instruction manual while assembling the drone. During their internship they had the opportunity to work directly with the MassRobotics Drone Academy which utilized these kits. Behind the scenes they prepared 18 kits that were used in the academy which included soldering the ESC’s to the PCB boards as well as flashing and connecting the flight controllers. When the camp was in full swing, Patricia and Veralis played a hands-on role in leading several lessons and assisting students with the assembly of their drones.
Maysam (Cambridge Rindge and Latin rising junior), Abigail(Cambridge Rindge and Latin rising junior) and Carlie (Harvard University incoming freshman) had the opportunity to work at Greensight, a company which “empowers creators who improve the world at the intersection of robotics, analytics and automation”. Abigail concentrated her efforts on electrical engineering working on tasks including circuit designs and the development of circuit boards. Maysam’s role revolved around more mechanical engineering, encompassing coding and CAD for various tasks. Carlie did work related to both mechanical and electrical engineering, tackling projects that straddled across both realms.