Teenagers Overcoming Barriers: BrainSTEM Learning Giant Diencephalic Robotics Team Secures Spot at FIRST Robotics World Championship

Three Pine-Richland students have secured a spot at the FIRST Robotics World Championship to be held in Houston, Texas from April 17-20. Ryan Scott, a senior, and eighth graders Piya Dargan and Keerthana Visveish will be competing as part of the BrainSTEM Learning Giant Diencephalic BrainSTEM Robotics Team. Named after a part of the human brain, the team is dedicated to outreach and goes by the mission Robots Without Borders.

In their pursuit of breaking systemic barriers that hinder children’s potential, the team has organized over 100 events. These events have aimed to overcome obstacles such as geography, health, or socioeconomic status. Their initiatives include creating STEM activity kits for the Ronald McDonald House, fundraising for humanitarian efforts in Haiti, establishing robotics teams in Central America, and creating a STEM career pathway for students in Allegheny Public Housing.

Their commitment to outreach has not gone unnoticed as they won the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award at the Greater Pittsburgh Regional event in March. This award recognizes the team that inspires the most students through engineering and STEM and comes with a team sponsorship from NASA. Furthermore, their success continued at the Miami Valley Regional event in Cincinnati in April where they earned