Rolling Robots Students awarded NCWIT 2021

Samantha Chang (PV) is the Winner of the Los Angeles Affiliate. Zoe McGaha-Schletter (Glendale), Simren Parikh (PV), and Victoria Tomozei (West LA) received the Honorable Mention of Los Angeles Affiliate. Claire Wang (PV) received the Honorable Mention of Massachusetts Affiliate. Let’s dive into some of their accomplishments one by one.

Claire is currently on the high school VEX Robotics AI team at Rolling Robots and is a current High School student who wants to combine the power of technology and the delicacy of neuroscience and neuroanatomy. She is currently a student researcher at UCLA’s prestigious lab and has studied under professionals at high-profile AI companies to learn data science. Amongst her accomplishments is having led AngelHacks, the largest beginner hackathon in Los Angeles in 2019, hosted by Snapchat HQ. Currently, Claire is studying biology, and though she is incredibly busy with school work, she finds time to enjoy her hobby of reading and fangirling over comic books. In the future, she hopes to embody all that DFTBA stands for and is. 

Samantha is currently part of the Rolling Robots high school VEX Robotics AI team. She has several accomplishments in the robotics and programming field. As of 2021, she is on one of 50 high-profile teams going to the VEX Artificial Intelligence World competition of 2021. In 2020, she was a programmer for her VEX robotics team that won the California State Championships, the Google Signature Event, and even qualified for VEX Worlds 2020. Outside of VEX, Samantha is part of her school’s FIRST Robotics TEam, Nerd Head 687. She also participated in the XPRIZE Next-Gen Mask Challenge where she and her Rolling Robots InventTeam created a facemask design that won 25th place out of almost 1,000 submissions. Samantha’s passion for Computer Science has led her to create several published apps on the App Store. This experience has left Samantha with the knowledge that she wants to study computer science and one day work at Apple. 

Simren was on the Rolling Robots middle school VEX robotics team and has a passion for scientific research. Her high school freshman year demonstrates this the best. As a first-year highschool student, Simren developed an alternative healing procedure that could replace stitches and optimize scar healing. This is not her only accomplishment in the medical research field. Alongside her science research is, of course, her programming accomplishments. She is the team captain and lead programmer of TSA, a program that “exclusively (caters) to the needs of students interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.” In the future, Simren has aspirations to be a medical researcher using her skills to make an impact in the medical field with the development and use of technology. 

Victoria is a current member of the Rolling Robots Outreach Young Inventor Team and is a passionate student of robotics. She has several awards in VEX robotics and is not only a student but an inventor, and mentor to other students who are beginners in robotics. Victoria has been part of two VEX robotics teams, one being 6007R and the other (her current team) 7700R. Both teams have won several awards and in 2020, alongside her team members in 7700R, they made it to the Tournament of Champions and the Google Signature Event. Among her accomplishments, Victoria has been part of VEX VRC, VEX-AI, an Invent Team, and is part of a BattleBots team! Her BattleBots team, Uh-Oh Robotics competed in the 2020 Season with their robot, Axolotl. Victoria hopes to become an Engineer in the future and combine engineering with her love of humanitarian work. 

Zoe is a current member of Rolling Robots’ high school VEX Robotics AI team. She found her passion in robotics and quit ballet to pursue STEM full-time. Her main interests are in robotics and programming. For the past 5 years, she has been one of the driving forces on her team for her award-winning VEX and VEXIQ robotics teams. In 2017 she made it to the VEX Robotics Nationals. In 2018 she won the Build Award at the California State Championships alongside the Judges award. In 2019, her team won first place in States. Outside of being a student in STEM,  her passions include mentoring others in Robotics and Coding and being a roller-coaster enthusiast. Her dream is to become a design engineer of roller-coasters and theme park experiences after college, possibly being an Imagineer at Disney.