The Engineers of the Future

Team: The Fire-Breathing Rubber Duckies

Hometown: Portland, OR

Tesca Fitzgerald, age 12 (front row, far left): "I wasn't very interested in technology before, but FIRST has inspired me to become a computer software engineer. I already know four different computer programs. Last year I found a way to enable the robot to read and write text files."

Taytlyn Fitzgerald, age 14 (back row, far left): "When I was only one of two girls on a team, it was hard. I spent that entire year sitting on a radiator watching the boys program the robot. Our coach said, 'Boys are the surgeons and girls are the nurses: You hand the boys the pieces to build the robot.' I knew better."