RoboJackets Outreach works closely with Georgia FIRST, a branch of the international FIRST organization that organizes robotics competitions for students from kindergarten to high school. One of the premier FIRST events in the fall is the Georgia FIRST Symposium, in which a large number of local teams come together to participate in workshops and interactive lectures to learn skills that enable them to compete better in their respective competitions. Typically, RoboJackets helps host this event in the College of Computing and Klaus buildings on Georgia Tech Campus.
This year, however, Symposium was held virtually using WebEx on September 11th through 13th. Our participation gave us the opportunity to reach student teams in the FIRST Lego League Challenge, the FIRST Tech Challenge, and the FIRST Robotics Competition. RoboJackets members prepared and delivered two classes on the 13th. The first class was “RoboJackets: Robotics After High School,” presented by former presidents Jason Gibson and Joe Spall, and IT Chair Todd Hayes. The second class was “Introduction to AutoDesk Inventor” (the 3D computer-aided design package we use), presented by current Secretary and Volunteer Coordinator Malak Bayyari, President Alex Field, and Outreach Chair Michael Chen. Both classes were followed by Q&A sessions to enable students to interact more directly with the presenters. You can view recordings of these classes below!
Michael Chen, our Outreach Chair, had this to say about the event:
There was quite a lot of work which went into coordinating what to present, when to get trained on WebEx, and what to do during Symposium, but the event went wonderfully as RoboJackets’ first main Outreach event for the fall!