While some girls spent their Homecoming day primping and preening in anticipation, seven Whitman students switched their flat irons and eyelash curlers for circuits and screwdrivers during the girlPOWER FIRST Robotics Tournament in Flourtown, Pennsylvania on Oct. 8.

In a normal tournament, both boy and girl team members work together to build, assemble, code, and drive the robot, but girlPOWER is unique in that only girls are allowed to drive the robot.

GirlPOWER featured the same course from last years FIRST tournaments,“FIRST Stronghold,” but as an off-season tournament, the team’s performance doesn’t affect their standings in the FIRST Championships season in January.

In the competition, alliances of three robots from three different school teams earn points by breaching their opponents’ defensive obstacles and capturing their tower, by breaking through defenses, scoring boulders through goals, and scaling a tower.

While Whitman came in 12th place, compared to a first place finish last year, they fared well considering their alternative approach, senior Natalie Cohn said.

“Last year, we were treating it more like a competition, but this year, we are using the off-season events to test new drivers for this season’s drive team,” Cohn said. “Our plan is to have a drive team selected before the season and have that be their sole job. A set team will not only give them time to improve their skills, but their chemistry and ability to advance their problem solving.”

Driving the robot takes a team of four: a coach, who strategizes moves; a driver, who drives the robot; a manipulator, who controls any turrets or arms for shooting; and a human player, who stands on the other side of the field and throws boulders in or gives directions through hand signals when other team member’s visibility is blocked.

During the tournament, one person acted as coach, while the other six players formed two drive teams and rotated through the other three positions, giving newcomers and veterans alike a welcome introduction to the upcoming season, junior Laura de Ravin said.

“You really saw the robot moving to your commands,” de Ravin said. “It was a little stressful, honestly, but also tons of fun.”

The hope is to incorporate more girls on the team as a whole, senior Claire Liu said.

“FIRST robotics is very male dominant, and this competition is an opportunity for girls to participate more,” Liu said. “Last year only 25 percent of the members were girls.”

More girls have joined this year and, while there is still a gender gap, the team is supportive and open to all newcomers, de Ravin said.

“Everyone is welcome at robotics and there isn’t really a great gender divide,” de Ravin said. “Everyone shares this common interest, so it isn’t incredibly noticeable once you start working with everyone.”