Danielle Boyer is a 21-year-old Indigenous (Ojibwe) and Queer robotics inventor and advocate for youth who has been teaching kids since she was ten. Driven by her families own inability to afford science and technology education, she is passionate about making education accessible and representative for her community so that no child is left behind. Danielle creates equitable and innovative learning solutions for Indigenous youths with robots that she designs, manufactures, and gives away for free. In 2019 at age eighteen, she created The STEAM Connection, a minority and youth-led charity that has reached hundreds of thousands of children worldwide with technical education with an emphasis on language revitalization. The STEAM Connection focuses on the future: ushering in a new age of education via personal and wearable robotics, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality. Informed by the past and present, The STEAM Connection utilizes traditional knowledge to uplift and protect Indigenous communities with an emphasis on language. Her goal is not necessarily to get youth into STEM careers but rather to equip them with the skills to solve the problems that they see in their communities now. This must be done with technology the kids can relate to... and she's creating it.
“An antiracist future is a decolonized future, and this means addressing our power dynamics, we talked about representation, that’s awesome, but it’s very hard to gain footing when it’s representation in someone else's system and they have power there. We need to lead our own solutions for our own communities, and this looks like different things for all of us.”
-Danielle Boyer for the MIT Solve Antiracist and Indigenous Futures Summit
Her flagship invention is Every Kid Gets a Robot (EKGAR), an innovative educational robotics kit that costs less than $20 dollars to make and is sent to youth for free, increasing their technical competency and understanding with a culturally competent curriculum. Her most recent invention is the SkoBot, created alongside her mentors. It is a personalized, wearable, and interactive Indigenous language revitalization robot that senses motion and speaks. The students build the robots themselves. Built to take tech learning out of the classroom, the robots were made to supplement community language learning for free. It has been a success in enabling youth to bring the robots home to learn with their families and in creating learning tools they resonate with.
Creating the first cultural robots.
8,000+
Free EKGAR robots sent
400k+
Youths reached with our representative educational resources
25k+
Users making robots on our Make-A-Robot Platform
100%
Designed by youth for youth for free
2022 at The STEAM Connection.
 Lakota Body Care |  Augmented Reality SkoBots |  Augmented Reality SkoBots |
|---|---|---|
 Colombia Junior High - Native American ClubAugmented reality SkoBot |  Colombia Junior High - Native American Club |  Colombia Junior High - Native American Club |
 Wa-He-Lute Indian School |  Wa-He-Lute Indian School |  Lucid Skies Teaching at Wa-He-Lute Indian School |
 SkoBots Drawing |  Wa-He-Lute Indian School |  Wa-He-Lute Indian School |
 Wa-He-Lute Indian School |  River Ridge High School |  3D Printing Nerd - EKGAR Robots |
 3D Printing Nerd |  Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |  Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |
 Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |  Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |  Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |
 Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |  Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |  Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |
 Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |  Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |  Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |
 Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |  Prepping Robots for Teaching |  Danielle Boyer and Joel Telling (3D Printing Nerd) |
 SiliCon |  SiliCon with Varun Sridhar (Director) |  Speaking for CS Girls by Harvard |
 Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |  Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |  Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |
 Anahuacalmecac International Baccalaureate World School |  Packing Robot Parts |  Born This Way Foundation |
 Born This Way Foundation |  Born This Way Foundation Advisors |  Born This Way Foundation |
 Verizon |  IMG_4961 |  American Indian Services |
 University of California Riverside |  4 Voices Project - Jazmine Wildcat, Danielle Boyer (1)Jazmine Wildcat and Danielle Boyer at the MTV Youth Action Forum at the White House announcing their collaborative work The 4 Voices Project |  IMG_7828Danielle Boyer (founder) was invited to the White House to present at the MTV Youth Action Forum |
 IMG_5203Danielle Boyer (founder) was invited to the White House to present at the MTV Youth Action Forum alongside mentor Tommy Ghost Dog Jr. and Jazmine Wildcat |  IMG_8172Danielle Boyer (founder) was invited to the White House to present at the MTV Youth Action Forum alongside team members Beyonce Utley and Jazmine Wildcat |  Presenting at MITDanielle Boyer (founder) presenting at MIT on education. |
 317bb0ae-6d7b-463b-a99a-00738c4831e5Danielle Boyer (founder) at MIT SOLVE as an MIT SOLVE Indigenous Communities Fellow alongside Michael Running Wolf and Aaron Slater |  United Auburn Indian SchoolHaving fun attacking Every Kid Gets a Robot at the United Auburn Tribal School. |  United Auburn Indian SchoolVisiting the United Auburn Tribal School. |
 United Auburn Indian SchoolBuilding robots at the United Auburn Tribal School. |  United Auburn Indian SchoolBuilding robots at the United Auburn Tribal School. |  PechangaDriving around Every Kid Gets a Robot with AISES on the Pechanga Reservation. |
 PechangaWearing SkoBots at the Pechanga Casino for the American Indian Science and Engineering Society Leadership Summit. |  Resin SkoBotClear resin SkoBot |  PechangaListening to SkoBots speak with AISES on the Pechanga Reservation. |
 IMG_2622Trying on a SkoBot at AISES on the Pechanga Reservation. |  IMG_2662Building Every Kid Gets a Robot with AISES on the Pechanga Reservation. |  Packing EKGAR Kits |
 UCLA AISESUCLA AISES unpack EKGAR |  UCLA AISESUCLA AISES unpacks EKGAR and their SkoBot |  Filming with our Founder |
 Packing EKGAR Kits |  Packing EKGAR Kits |  SkoBotSkoBot for UCLA AISES |
 Packing EKGAR Kits |  Packing EKGAR Kits |  Indigenous Books |
 IMG_3466 |  IMG_3467 |  IMG_3470 |
