Congressional Robotics Caucus

[Rich Kressly]

As promised...quick report from yesterday's caucus gathering:

From the Caucus briefing brochure found at roboticscaucus.org - here's a list of Exhibitors & Guests:

Banneker Senior HS, DC - FTC Team 2989
Bryn Mawr College, PA
Carnegie Mellon University, PA (This was actually Robin Shoop and the CMU Robotics Academy)
Forsyth Alliance Robotics, GA -(Rick Folea's group repsenting gobs of teams in many programs)
Foshay Learning Center / NGY STEM, CA - (FRC team)
Herndon High School, VA - FRC & FTC Team 116 / 519
Jefferson Middle School, DC - FLL Team 8180 KIPR - KISS Institute for Practical Robotics, OK (BotBall)
Lower Merion HS, PA (FRC/VRC 1712 - my gang)
McKinley Technology HS, DC - FRC Team 1915 Montgomery County Public Schools, MD
Sidwell Friends School, DC
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA (Ken Stafford and other WPI Staff)

From our team perspective, here's a copy of our school district press release (sorry for not having time to edit again):
"On Thursday, October 15 LMHS Robotics Team Captains traveled to Capitol Hill as exhibitors at a Congressional Robotics Caucus briefing. Inventor and FIRST Robotics Founder Dean Kamen was the day’s keynote speaker and attendees included several congressional representatives and staffers, industry leaders, and other robotics program exhibitors from K-12 programs, university programs, and non-profit organizations. Dawgma represented one of eight exemplary school-based robotics programs from around the nation on site to help Congress and Industry understand how important robotics education and competition can be to our national STEM initiative that is aimed at meeting the overwhelming present and future demand for scientists, engineers, and leaders. With 92% of Dawgma alumni currently pursuing a STEM-related career, team members had a chance to show attendees how LM Robotics has a positive impact upon students in both curricular and co-curricular settings from K-12 across the district. The day’s highlights for Dawgma included a visit from Representative Jim Gerlach, discussing the program with attendees from the iRobot Corporation & the National Science Foundation, and trading best practices with school and university exhibitors."

I'll make some pics available soon, but we took with us a banner outlining our robot, people, outreach, and curriculum impact histories. Along with Photos of FRC/FTC/VRC Robots we had several robotic senior projects on display - mostly VEX-oriented, our Elevation VRC Robot, curriculum materials. We also distributed a handout of robotics education resources highlighting many programs and platforms - free resources as well as those available for purchase.

In all a productive day.