STEM careers: Why Ann Richards School for Young Women students toured semiconductor plant
Students from the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders recently got a close-up view of a semiconductor company as part of a new robotics partnership between the school and Cirrus Logic.
The visit to the fabless semiconductor company last week was meant to get students excited about women in technology and science career fields and to celebrate the partnership, which is helping fund the school’s robotics team.
Cirrus Logic has committed $10,000 a year over three years for the students’ after-school robotics team, which was relaunched last year after it fizzled out during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Dannie Strubhar, robotics coach at Ann Richards, a sixth to 12th grade all-girls school in the Austin district.
That funding is key for purchasing needed materials and paying contest entry fees, she said.
“It’s going to allow us to have four teams of up to 30 girls,” Strubhar said.
During the students' tour March 13, they learned about how a semiconductor company works and spoke with women who work at Cirrus.
It’s important for students to have hands-on experience in the STEM field, which refers to science, technology, engineering and math, said Fraya Cohen, a design verification manager at Cirrus.
“It’s so important to take it off just the written page,” Cohen said.
The partnership is about the funding, but it’s also meant to give girls interested in STEM a chance for mentorship from other women in STEM, Strubhar said.
“There’s very, very few women who go into electrical engineering,” Strubhar said. “It’s really helpful for them to imagine themselves in that role.”
Talking to people already in the industry and touring facilities help the students get a better idea of what real-world engineers do on a day-to-day basis, said Berenize Cornelio-Gutierrez, a senior at Ann Richards.
“I’ve been having trouble as a student deciding what I want to do,” Cornelio-Gutierrez said. “I keep going from electrical engineer to computer science to just engineer.”
She loves the opportunity to work with robots through the club, which she joined last year, she said. The students built an entire robot in just a week once they realized their current model was too big for the task, she said.
Cornelio-Gutierrez plans to attend Smith College on a full scholarship next year.
Interest in the robotics team at the Ann Richards school at 2309 Panther Trail is growing, Strubhar said.
Last year, the team had only 10 students, but this year it is up to 30, she said.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: AISD gets boost for robotics club with Cirrus Logic partnership
