For the last several weeks, a team of engineers, coders and builders has been assembling Robot 6418. They are the Missfits, an all-girl team from five high schools across San Francisco. They had a strong performance at a critical Silicon Valley robotics competition earlier this month.
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"Some of the teams at that competition had been around for like 20 years. So being a first year team and doing that well was really amazing," said Anya Jensen, team founder.
Jensen's parent's home has been their workshop.
"They've taken over my entire garage and the first floor of our house," said Patti Jensen, team sponsor.
Building Robot 6418 has pushed these young women to learn a variety of skills.
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"I take AP computer science at school, but it's a completely different frame of mind when you're working with actual code and you can see the results in a fully functioning robot," said Halie Kim, team member.
"I love math and science and all this stuff so this is just a place where it's more creative, and practical," said Ryann Minnis, team member.
This weekend they've been building a shipping crate for their robot. They are going to Houston for the world championships. The Missfits will be one of only a few all female teams there. Many of the members have never left the Bay Area. They launched a GoFundMe campaign to help with expenses.
They're hoping Robot 6418 will have a strong showing. As a rookie team they will be the underdogs and who doesn't like cheering on the underdog?