Elena Soaje

"For six years the young Elena Soaje worked as a financial manager for a company that coordinates several make-up companies in Guadalajara (Mexico). There she helped Human Resources to recruit engineers and it didn´t take her long to realize that it is getting harder and harder to find engineering graduates.

Faced with this crisis of scientific and technological vocations among the younger generations, Soaje decided to do something that would offer a new perspective on science, math and physics.

After analyzing the educational tools available in Mexico, Soaje devised Robocrea, a play-based methodology and contacted Lego to begin using their pieces to design robots. Besides teaching students to build “traditional” robots, Robocrea invented what they call “the first drone ever constructed without tools that can fly autonomously”. Their flying robot is also built using Lego pieces. The device is controlled via remote control or a smartphone using an application that also teaches the children to program.

Soaje´s activities are used in schools – especially in after-school activities – and in Robocrea´s center in Guadalajara. The students which participate in the workshops are ten years or older and work in groups of three. Thanks to Soaje´s methodology, “they train their imaginations, creativity, mental agility, self-confidence, communication, problem solving and team work skills”, Soaje explains."