Breaking Barriers: The BrainSTEM Robotics Team’s Journey to the FIRST World Championship

Three Pine-Richland students recently earned a spot at the FIRST Robotics World Championship, which will take place in Houston, Texas from April 17-20. Ryan Scott, a senior, and eighth graders Piya Dargan and Keerthana Visveish will compete as part of the BrainSTEM Learning Giant Diencephalic BrainSTEM Robotics Team. The team, named after a part of the human brain, is dedicated to outreach and goes by the mission Robots Without Borders.

In their pursuit of breaking systemic barriers that hinder children’s potential, the team has organized over 100 events. These events have aimed to overcome obstacles such as geography, health, or socioeconomic status. Their initiatives include creating STEM activity kits for the Ronald McDonald House, fundraising for humanitarian efforts in Haiti, establishing robotics teams in Central America, and creating a STEM career pathway for students in Allegheny Public Housing.

Their commitment to outreach has not gone unnoticed as they won the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award at the Greater Pittsburgh Regional event in March. This award recognizes the team that inspires the most students through engineering and STEM and comes with a sponsorship from NASA. Furthermore, their success continued at the Miami Valley Regional event in Cincinnati in April where they earned the Regional FIRST Impact Award and solidified their spot at the World Championship.

At the World Championship, Ryan Scott shared that his role as business and outreach lead has evolved over