Story of Afghan girls is among many at global robotics event

WASHINGTON -- An international robotics competition in Washington was in its final day Tuesday, with teams of teenagers from more than 150 nations competing.

The team getting the most attention at the FIRST Global Challenge was a squad of girls from Afghanistan who twice were rejected for U.S. visas before President Donald Trump intervened.

But there were even more stories than there were teams. Here are a few:

Girl power

Sixty percent of the teams participating in the competition were founded, led or organized by women. Of the 830 teens participating, 209 were girls. And there were six all-girl teams, including not only the Afghan squad but also teams from the United States, Ghana, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.

Poriya Mizbani, 16, left, and Amin Dadkhah Tehrani, 15, with Team Iran, begin to pack up their station after competing Tuesday in the FIRST Global Robotics Challenge in Washington.Jacquelyn Martin ~ Associated Press

Vanuatu's nickname: the "SMART Sistas."

Samira Bader, 16, on the Jordanian team, said "it's very difficult for us because everyone thinks" building robots is "only for boys." She said her team wanted to prove "girls can do it."

The three-girl U.S. team included sisters Colleen and Katie Johnson of Everett, Washington, and Sanjna Ravichandar of Plainsboro, New Jersey. Colleen Johnson, 16, said her team looked forward "to a day when an all-girls team is going to be no more special than an all-boys team or a co-ed team, just when that's completely normal and accepted."

The team competing from Brunei was also all female, though a male member previously worked on the project.

Unusual alliance

The United States and Russia were on the same side Tuesday. During the fourth round of the competition, the U.S. team was paired with teams from Russia and Sudan to work as an alliance.

The robots all the teams in the competition created were designed with the same kit of parts and did the same task: pick up and distinguish between blue and orange balls.

To score points, teams deposited the blue balls, which represented water, and the orange balls, which represented contaminants, into different locations. Each three-nation alliance competed head-to-head in 2 1/2-minute games.

U.S. and Russian teams paid their counterparts compliments after their game Tuesday. Russian team member Aleksandr Iliasov said of the U.S. team: "They cooperate well."

And U.S. team member Collen Johnson called the Russian team's robot "very innovative," saying they had used extra wheels and gears and zip ties smartly to keep balls inside their robot.

Despite their good collaboration, U.S.-Russia-Sudan fell short, losing 40 to 20 to Zimbabwe, Moldova and Trinidad and Tobago.

A little help

The team from Iran got some help building their robot from American students. It turned out the competition's kit of robot parts, including wheels, brackets, sprockets, gears, pulleys and belts, was not approved for shipment to Iran due to sanctions involving technology exports to the country. So the competition recruited a robotics team at George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church, Virginia, to help.

Iran's team designed the robot, and about five Marshall students built it in the United States.

The team explained on its competition webpage "our friends in Washington made our ideas as a robot."

Because of the time difference between the countries, the three-member team and its mentor were sometimes up at midnight or 3 a.m. in Iran to talk to their collaborators.

Amin Dadkhah, 15, called working with the American students "a good and exciting experience for both of us."

Kirianna Baker, one of the U.S. students who built the robot, agreed.

"Having a team across the world with a fresh set of eyes is very valuable," she said.