Reign Robotics: Building Robots and Opportunities for Girls in STEM
When the students of Holy Names Academy’s Reign Robotics team started their 2026 season, they had a new robot to build, a new set of competitions ahead of them, and a familiar goal: to give girls the opportunity to develop their skills in robotics and STEM.
Reign Robotics is the only all-girls FIRST Robotics Competition team in Washington. The team has been competing and running STEM outreach activities for a number of years, with achievements ranging from qualifying for the FIRST World Championship in Houston in 2017 to winning the Engineering Inspiration and Entrepreneurship Awards at the 2019 district championships.
In 2020, the team won the Safety Award at the Glacier Peak Qualifier for its innovative quiet rooms, which are now required at all FIRST Robotics Competition events. The following year, the team won the Industrial Design Award in a virtual competition against teams from around the world.
Its activities extend well beyond competition. Team members have taught STEM basics to children at Mary’s Place, a local homeless shelter, and founded a FIRST Lego League team at their all-girls sister school in Kenya. They have also hosted panels at Geek Girl Con in Seattle and, in 2024 and 2025, ran summer camps introducing middle school students to coding.
ACM-W has supported this work through a $3,000 award to Holy Names Academy. The funding has helped the team continue its activities this year, including the development of Nefertiti, its 2026 robot, which the students built and programmed from scratch. The team has already had a strong competition season. At its first competition, Reign Robotics was selected for the top alliance and progressed to the finals, despite being a smaller team.
At its second competition, the team received the Team Spirit Award for its work running LEGO Robotics camps for middle school girls and its “big sister” programme, which pairs new members with returning students to help them develop skills and build connections within the team. Reign Robotics was also selected for the third alliance and went on to the semi-finals.
For the team, ACM-W’s support has been visible throughout the season, appearing on the robot, team shirts and other materials. More importantly, it has helped the students continue both their competitive robotics work and their efforts to encourage younger girls to get involved in STEM. That outreach remains an important part of the team’s work. Reign Robotics continues to partner with Women Advancing Tomorrow’s Technologists on STEM education initiatives, including activities at Mary’s Place.
The students are already looking towards future seasons, with plans to continue developing the team and its outreach activities.
Their experience illustrates one of the valuable effects of supporting student groups: funding a team does not just help students build a robot. It can help them build the confidence, technical experience and community connections to encourage other girls to follow them into STEM.
ACM-W is delighted to support Reign Robotics as they do both.