SheBuilds

Empowering Young Women in STEM through the power of building and exploration

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Inspiration for SheBuilds

The inspiration for SheBuilds comes primarily from the lack of representation of women in STEM. According to statistics and our own experience (in Ryan and Megan's Mechatronics Engineering program, there are less than 20% females in the cohort), women are underrepresented, and SheBuild could be a way to inspire and empower more women to enter these fields.

We believe this project is a positive way to have social impact and that this project can contribute to that goal.

What SheBuilds does

Our website is a project that excels in its ability to:

  • Encourage hands-on learning: The hands-on kits allow girls to engage in STEM activities in a fun and interactive way. This type of learning is known to be more effective than just reading or listening to lectures.
  • Reach all across the world (the internet!): This project allows girls from all over the world to have access to STEM education regardless of their location, this can help to increase representation and diversity in STEM fields.
  • Flexibility: Kits can be designed to be fun, interactive and adaptable to different ages and education levels, making it accessible to a wide range of girls.

How we built it

The project was divided into two components: hardware and software. The software aspect of the project was developed using Bootstrap with a combination of HTML, CSS, and JS. The hardware was constructed using the Arduino programming language in conjunction with various input/output peripherals to enhance interactivity. Conditional statements were incorporated to make the device more dynamic and error handling was taken into consideration.

Challenges we ran into

Hardware issues:

  • Limited time: Hackathons typically have a time constraint, which can make it challenging to fully develop and test a hardware hack. This can lead to issues such as unfinished projects or projects that don't function as intended.
  • Limited resources: The hardware we had for this hackathon was the kit we brought. This can make it difficult to implement certain ideas and can lead to projects that are less ambitious than the team would have liked. We also had issues, such as the need for digital logic systems, but we did not have any transistors and limited I/O parts.
  • Difficulty in debugging and compatibility: Hardware hacks can be difficult to debug because it's harder to see what's happening inside the device. This can make it hard to find and fix bugs and can lead to projects that don't work as intended.
  • The physics of the project!

Software Issues:

  • Version control - had some issues with our branching and irregular Git pulls and pushes. It took some time to fix this issue

Accomplishments that we're proud of:

  • Our solution to bringing awareness in STEM while dealing with the UofT X theme of exploration. It was great that we were able to combine the two.
  • Interactivity: By combining hardware and website, the project can be made more interactive and engaging for users. For example, a website can be used to display data from a sensor or control the functionality of a device.

What we learned

  • The challenges with a hardware hack and the need of having a comprehensive kit
  • How to design a project within 36 hours while meeting the design criteria. Our team was quick to think on our feet and design around it

What's next for SheBuilds

  • The design of more hardware projects and the beginning of a social media campaign to bring awareness to our website and the community are something we would like to do more in the future
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