In support of the International Girls in ICT Day 

Compulsory Peace & ICTs Education From Kindergarten to K-12, and Beyond | Campaign (8th Session)
 #CompulsoryPeaceICTsEdu

2026 Theme for Girls In ICT Day: “AI for Development: Girls Shaping the Digital Future” 

Dedicated to: Pioneer of the GPS Dr. Gladys B. West

Session Theme: ICTs, AI, and Space Tech For Girls | #ICTsForGirls Day 2026


Presented by Julia Khabinskiy, Manalapan High School, USA.
Delivered on April 25, 2026



Introductory Note: From Iteration to Innovation

[LMGlobal.Org] In this below presentation, Julia Khabinskiy, an 11th-grade student at Manalapan High School (USA), shares her personal journey through the world of robotics. Her presentation, titled “What has STEM Taught Me? Girls Belong in It,” explores how a simple childhood interest in coding blossomed into a passion for mechanical and electrical engineering.

Julia provides a candid look at the “engineering process,” detailing the challenges she faced while designing and building a custom robotic hand—from sensor malfunctions to structural design flaws. By drawing a powerful parallel between her own iterative failures and the lifelong persistence of pioneering mathematician Dr. Gladys B. West (whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS), Julia demonstrates that resilience is the true heart of engineering. Her story is a testament to the idea that with patience and persistence, any girl can transform an idea that once seemed impossible into a reality that has the potential to change the world.

We invite you to explore Julia’s full presentation and learn how her hands-on engagement with robotics has empowered her to see herself as a future innovator.

What has STEM Taught Me? Girls Belong in It!

When you think of people in STEM, who do you picture? Most likely, names like Nikola Tesla, Alexander Graham Bell, or Elon Musk come to mind. But who’s missing? Women. This isn’t due to a lack of ability to thrive in STEM; rather, it stems from the fact that women are often overshadowed by men, who have been seen as the dominant figures in engineering and many other fields for many decades.

One major pioneer of engineering, who often doesn’t receive the recognition she deserves, is American mathematician Gladys West. Her groundbreaking work laid the foundation for the GPS technology that we rely on every day. This makes her an incredibly influential figure on a global scale, yet many people remain unaware of her name and contributions. The underrepresentation of women in engineering creates a cycle where their accomplishments are overshadowed, leading to a perception that women do not belong in these fields. This can dissuade girls from pursuing careers in STEM. Today, I want to explore the reasons why more girls should consider STEM careers and share the valuable skills and lessons I’ve learned along the way.

From a young age, I took Sunday Russian classes at a school about an hour away from my home. They also offered coding classes using Scratch, where we made simple games. My parents convinced me to try one coding class, and from there, I became really hooked on STEM.

They bought me many STEM kits, and I even took Python classes afterward. However, as high school rolled around, I started to like coding less, but I developed a greater interest in mechanical and electrical engineering after seeing how cool the robots were on the robotics team.

Consequently, I joined robotics, and I quickly excelled in FTC (my school’s main competition robotics team), creating detailed CAD models and playing an important role in designing the intake of our robot. Then, I wanted to bring my models to life and received a 3D printer for New Year’s. That’s when everything changed. With this, I felt more encouraged than ever to create CAD models of things that interested me and bring them to life. I had been thinking about building a robotic hand for about a year and realized that I had the electronic skills and the printer, so I could actually bring it to life. Due to my skills in building this hand, I also became the captain of our school’s underwater robotics team. Really, it was one coding class that started everything.

Initially, my goal was to build a cost-effective robotic hand using an ECG sensor with electrodes on my arm to move each finger. However, to get there, the first thing I was going to do was build a simpler version, with one button to control each finger, just as a basic design, before my ECG arrived. After my ECG arrived, I tried working with it, but the signal was too unreliable because the way it worked was that the code set a threshold for each finger, and once it stayed within the threshold, the servo for that finger would move. However, if I moved one finger too hard, the signal might be too strong, exceeding the threshold that is programmed for the finger that I moved, causing another finger to move instead of the one that I actually moved.

Thus, this method proved to be super unreliable, and I had to switch to a robotic hand using flex sensors attached to a glove. This worked really well. My end goal is to build a full-body exoskeleton. Currently, I am working on an exoskeleton for my hand and arm that mirrors the motions of the other arm.

This whole experience taught me that failure is a part of the process. It is bound to happen, but an engineer needs to know how to overcome it. My first design faced a lot of challenges. I had to use tape to mount the servos, which was very ineffective; my first design didn’t even look like a hand, as there was no tissue in between the joints of the knuckles, and the 3D printed phalanges (finger bones) kept snapping because the printer kept printing them with little cracks inside and with supports that did not easily come off. But, instead of giving up, I overcame these challenges by completely redesigning the hand, super-gluing when needed, and being more careful with the phalanges, taking my time to remove the supports. This taught me that being an engineer requires patience, persistence, and a willingness to improve. That connects directly to people like Gladys West. Her work on GPS didn’t happen overnight; it took years of problem-solving and persistence. Because of pioneers like her, we can see that women can be just as great at STEM as men are. Also, I was able to take an idea that once seemed impossible to me and bring it to reality, and I encourage many girls to try the same. They may not feel confident at first, but as they progress in their journey, they will feel more and more confident.

Something as small as lighting up an LED can turn into a project that can change the world, and I
encourage girls all around the world to try.