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WASHINGTON, D.C. (7News) — D.C. students were recognized in October for their NASA-inspired robots.

The 2025 STEM Intern Celebration at Samsung D.C. HQ highlighted students’ six-week summer program with NASA-inspired robotics and AI tools.

On-Ramps to Careers is a non-profit partnership that makes technology and engineering careers more attainable to youth in the Nation’s Capital.

One group of D.C. teens used NASA-inspired robots that could help deliver food in the city’s “food deserts.”

"The purpose was to create a rover that could move and run certain tasks and able to complete them also," Genesis Benavidez told 7News. Benavidez was one of four in her group to design a futuristic rover to help residents in the local community.

"The initial designs there are three main components. The first one is stable on rough terrain, durable and tough-looking. And lastly, built to handle obstacles like craters, rocks and slopes. So these were the three main goals we wanted to accomplish while building the rover," Mikee Assefa said.

"DC is one of the biggest labor markets for STEM, you wouldn't know it. You think of the government town but it's the biggest labor market, at least on the East Coast, right after Silicon Valley," Robert Holm, the founder of On-Ramps to Careers.

"Everybody is talking about AI, you still need to have young people, maybe even more so have young people able to be producers of it, not just consumers of it," Holm told 7News.

Holm said students and even adults who are interested in technology and engineering can take part in On-Ramps to Careers as the goal is to expand the STEM industry. "It's the beauty of technology is that if you can do the work, people will step by their biases and hire you," Holm explained.

About 8% of Black or African American professionals are represented in STEM, according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. Hispanic professionals make up nearly double that at 15%. However, data and experts report the industry is still overwhelmingly white, Asian and male-dominated.

"STEM in general, people of color, African heritage, people in particular, and Latino young people...the percentage in those fields is much lower than the general population at the same time that it's one of the best places to make a great living and start your own company, really leverage it for all kinds of social change leadership. And so if you don't have access to it, you're kind of handicapped," Holm said.

While the organization launched in 2014, Holm said there's work to do for the organization and students. "There's the inspiration. They just can see somebody, and we try to introduce them to professionals of color in the industry, so they can say, 'Hey, that's me. 20 years from now,'" he added.