All-girls robotics team from Dallas ISD elementary school to compete in world's largest robotics competition

DALLAS - The world's largest robotics competition is in Dallas this weekend and an all-girls team from a Dallas ISD elementary school will be representing the city.

The Casa View Elementary "Ladybots" Robotics Team and their coach Patricia Cortez will compete in the Vex Robotics World Championships at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

"Teams have to come up with different mechanisms to solve this year's challenge," said Cortez.

The girls built a robot that is able to collect discs and shoot them into a "scoring zone."

Cortez says the "Ladybots" started three years ago at the request of two students who are now in middle school.

"They really wanted to show that girls have a place in STEM," said Cortez. 

Cortez notes that only 5% of Hispanic women are in STEM fields.

"They want to be that change. They like going out and speaking about girl power and how they want to make a difference in the world and show that Hispanic women do have a place in STEM," she said.

"After joining robotics I've seen that I'm in love with robotics and that's helped me realize that I want to be a NASA engineer," said 5th grader Emma Aldana.

The "Ladybots" will be competing on Tuesday at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.