Category Archives: Robotics

DJI announced Monday that the RoboMaster 2017 finals which it sponsors will be streamed on the social video portal Twitch, exclusively. DJI is the world's leader in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for consumers and hobbyists, whether for simple cruising or for aerial photography. Twitch, of course, is the number one streaming platform for video games and other geek-related media.

"RoboMaster 2017 is an annual robotics competition for teams of aspiring engineers to design and build next-generation robots and to complete with teams from around the world," DJI wrote in a press release.

If this sparks your curiosity, head on over to Twitch's RoboMaster page and tune in. The finals are in full swing now in China's technology capital of Shenzhen and will come to a close on August 6. Don't worry, you can watch this without regional restriction, and aren't relegated to only Chinese commentary, as there's an English one available, too.

As somebody who watched American Gladiator and BattleBots as a child, this provides for a strong sense of nostalgia in that regard. The arena strongly reminds of those shows, but in this case, there's more of a focus on the actual engineering and strategy as opposed to theatrics and loud noises. How does the actual game in which these teams are competing in work? Well, it's fairly simple but warmly familiar to anyone who's ever played a video game or two.

"Each side has five types of robots: Hero, Infantry, Engineer, Drone, and Base. At the start of each seven-minute match, both teams set off from their starting corners, firing at each other on the obstacle-filled battleground. Every robot is equipped with sensors that convert hits into reduced Health Points (HP)," the press release said. "When a robot's HP drops to zero, it will be disabled, allowing the opposing team to further penetrate the opponents base. A team wins when it destroys the opponent's Base robot or whichever team has a higher Base HP at the end."

What does the winner get, you ask? Well, first prize is a nice 200,000 yuan, ($1,815.20). Second prize receives 100,000 yuan ($907.60), with third prize being 50,000 yuan ($453.80). Not too shabby.

Cinzia Palumbo, Senior Brand Manager at DJI, explained in the press release that the "competition started in China a few years ago and now attracts teams from the U.S., U.K., Germany, and the rest of Asia. By streaming RoboMaster 2017 on Twitch, it will enable us to reach a global audience and allow more people to realize how robotics could impact and change the world we live in."

Sounds like the team has its hands full with more than a simple robotics event that takes place once a year. This seems like their motivation comes from an urge to inspire others to get into engineering, and provide opportunities to young people in relation to skill-building and value to the job market. It certainly reminds of the Aerial Sports League's efforts or what the folks at Goodwood Festival of Speed were doing this summer.

If you're worried about tuning at the right time, don't worry about missing any particular live events. Twitch understands that we're all spread out over various time zones, and offers the ability to watch replays of previous events. Currently, for example, "Finals Day 1" is streamingtime to catch up.

Originally posted here:

DJI to Stream the RoboMaster 2017 Robotics Competition Exclusively on Twitch - The Drive

TABOR, S.D. (AP) - If you travel about three miles northeast of Tabor, there is a hillside that is home to the Pechous Dairy. It might not look different from the average dairy operation on the outside, but inside its a different story.

Housed inside the walls of the Pechous Dairys newly built free-stall barn is a high-tech system of four robots working 24/7 to milk 230 cows an average of 2.8 times per day. The new barn and advanced machinery are investments in the familys legacy as dairy farmers for future generations.

Having grown up and lived on dairy farms only two miles apart, Bob and Nancy Pechous took over Bobs parents operation in 1980 before getting married in 1981. The couple started with 30 cows in a stanchion barn and had to physically haul their own buckets of milk to the cooler. In 1986, the couple expanded their operation and built a 12-station milking parlor with a pipeline for hauling milk. The upgrade allowed them to gradually begin increasing their herd size to around 125 cows.

The addition of the milking parlor was great because everything became centralized, Nancy Pechous told the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan (http://bit.ly/2vuoCFf ). We could have six cows on each side. Once we finished milking on one side, we could switch to the other side and rotate in six new cows.

The Pechous Dairy operated out of its 12-station milking parlor for the next 30 years with help from two hired hands and family support before changing to their current operation.

Out of their three children, only the Pechous youngest son, Kyle, decided to join the dairy as a partner. Their oldest son, Justin, operates Pechous Repair in Tabor and their daughter, Jennifer, teaches in Brandon.

Kyle was adjoined at the hip with Bob since he could walk, Nancy said. We knew he was going to be our farmer. He was always helping out at the dairy as soon as he was old enough.

Kyle obtained a degree in diesel mechanics from Northeast Community College before returning home as a full-time partner in 2005. It was his idea to upgrade to the new robotic milking system in 2016.

We got to the point where the old barn was falling apart, Nancy said. We either needed to repair it or start new. Bob and I were actually thinking about getting out of the dairy business at the time, but Kyle came up with the idea to implement the new robotic system. We decided that we were all in this together and went full speed ahead.

Construction on the new barn and the installation of the robotic milking system began in January 2016 and finished late last September.

We are now nine months into the new system, Nancy said. For the first three months, we practically lived up in the barn after it was built. Thats how long it took before the cows adjusted to the new system.

Built with the potential for expansion in mind, the new barn is divided into two main sections capable of housing 120 cows on each side. Both sections are outfitted with access to a feeding trough, back scratchers and bedded stalls. The barn is also outfitted with fans that create a constant five-mile-per-hour breeze that keeps the cows comfortable and the bugs out. Adding to the overall automation of the Pechous Dairy, manure is also automatically scrapped from the floors by a robotic system and pressed into dry bedding to be put on top of the rubber mats that cover the stall floors.

We built this for future generations, Bob Pechous said. We want to keep this dairy going and pass it down to our grandchildren.

Installed in each section are two fully-automatic milking machines, each with the capability of milking 60 cows. All the cows at the dairy have been trained to come to one of the four milking machines through the use of special protein pellets that are delivered by the robots. When a cow walks into the stall next to a machine, it reads the chip inside of a collar placed around the cows neck. The cow is then weighed and fed according to how much milk it produces.

While the cow is feeding, the machine washes each teat and hooks up to them automatically, guided by lasers. The system records how much time each cow has been attached to the machine; it even measures down to the exact time that each teat is attached and how much milk each one produced. All the milk is then automatically transported from the machine to the cooler where it waits to be hauled out by truck every other day.

If something were to go wrong with the machine, like a computer glitch or a milking cup getting knocked out of position, the system automatically calls for assistance until someone responds. As an added safety net in case of power outages, the whole dairy is also backed up by a diesel generator to ensure that the system never goes offline and the cows are always milked.

The automated system also offers total monitoring of the herd from an office computer. It notifies the dairy of which cows are in need of artificial insemination and which cows need to be dried up. It also records the weight and body temperature of each animal, as well as notifies the dairy of abnormal milk, mastitis and other potential illnesses.

The new system allows us to get to the cows before they get sick, Nancy said. It helps us to head off a lot of things before they become a real problem.

Under the new milking robotic milking system, the Pechous Dairy has seen an increase of approximately 10 pounds of milk per cow. The daily average at the dairy is currently about 80 pounds of milk per cow. Overall, the dairy produces approximately 20,000 pounds of milk per day.

My goal per cow was 86 pounds per day, Bob said. We are not far from that right now. We actually have 33 cows producing over 100 pounds of milk per day, and our top producer is at about 145 pounds per day.

Currently, two-thirds of the Pechous Dairys herd is first-time heifers who dont produce as much milk until their second lactation.

Next lactation, we are going to probably get another 10 pounds of milk per cow from the majority of our herd, Nancy said. After our first-time heifers have their second calf, they will produce more milk.

Already the largest of three dairies in Yankton County, the Pechous family said it wants to continue to lead local dairy production well into the future with the technological investments they have made at their facility.

We want to help educate people on where their dairy products come from, Bob said. A lot of people might not know what goes into the process of getting their milk from the cow to the table.

___

Information from: Yankton Press and Dakotan, http://www.yankton.net/

Here is the original post:

South Dakota dairy looks to future with robotics - Washington Times - Washington Times

BBC News

Amazon Robotics Challenge 2017 won by Australian budget bot BBC News Cartman - a budget-priced robot from Australia - has triumphed in an annual contest to create a machine that can identify, pick up and stow warehouse goods. The bot was designed from scratch to take part in 2017's Amazon Robotics Challenge and used a ... Australian robotics team win Amazon compSky News Australia Australia Won The Amazon Robotics Challenge With 'Cartman', A Cheap Robot Held Together With Cable TiesGizmodo Australia CartMan picks and sticks its way to glory in Amazon Robotics ChallengeNew Atlas all 4 news articles »

See the original post:

Amazon Robotics Challenge 2017 won by Australian budget bot - BBC News

NuTonomys driverless car took a spin around in South Boston.

It was this time last year that it first occurred to me that the U.S. presidential election was a choice between two World War II acronyms: SNAFU (Situation Normal All F***ed Up) and FUBAR (F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition).

In essence, American voters faced a choice between a candidate who personified the political status quo under an arrogant and detached liberal elite and a candidate who promised the disruption of that status quo. With Hillary Clinton there was the certainty that nothing much would change. With Donald Trump there was the chance of quite a lot of change, but the risk that it would be change for the worse.

Advertisement

This week, the time has arrived to break the bad news to those who voted for Trump. You wanted change. You got it. For only the second time since 1955, Republicans control both the White House and Congress. But the result is a political system that I can now officially certify as FUBAR. This is not politics. This is fubatics.

Fubatics is to politics what comedy is to news. Ever since Americans began to get their politics from comedians like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, the danger has existed that the politicians would respond by providing them and their scriptwriters with material for gags. We have now reached that point.

Get This Week in Opinion in your inbox:

Globe Opinion's must-reads, delivered to you every Sunday.

On Wednesday, newly appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci told a New Yorker journalist that his colleague, chief of staff Reince Priebus, was a (expletive) paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac.He took to Twitter to imply that Priebus was guilty of a felony in leaking details of his financial disclosures. Meanwhile, their boss was also tweeting that he had lost faith in his very weak attorney general, Jeff Sessions.

For the White House, the attacks on the attorney general have touched off a serious problem on Capitol Hill when it did not need any other headaches.

Unified government? These guys are unified the way the cast of Reservoir Dogs were unified.

Meanwhile, in Silicon Valley, the plan to render most Americans and indeed most humans unemployed goes smoothly forward.

Advertisement

If you dont live in northern California, you tend to assume that it will be decades before self-driving vehicles are the dominant mode of transport. Last week, British Environment Secretary Michael Gove announced that the sale of new diesel and petrol cars would be banned in the UK by 2040, to encourage people to buy electric vehicles. This time frame surely underestimates Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, not to mention the established car manufacturers currently chasing him in the race to bring electric cars to the mass market. Goves worries about diesel fumes remind me of the Times editorial in 1894 warning that, by the middle of the 20th century, every street in London would be buried under nine feet of horse manure.

Despite overwhelming evidence of the accelerating pace of technological change and its diffusion, we humans remain chronically bad at making realistic projections about our economic future. According to the American trucking industry, the number of jobs for heavy-truck drivers and tractor-trailer drivers will be 21 percent higher in 2020 than in 2010. The Bureau of Labor expects that growth to continue until 2024. Yet self-driving vehicles are already on the road in several states in the United States. The Tesla Model S that takes me to the airport is already fitted with an autopilot mode.

According to the American Trucker Association, there are 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the United States. It is the most common job in the overwhelming majority of states. But the stark reality is that truckers are sitting where the drivers of horse-drawn carriages were sitting a century ago: on the brink of unemployment. Nor are they alone. Nearly half of jobs in United States are at risk of being automated over next decade or two, according to Carl Frey and Michael Osborne of Oxfords Martin School. Looking at global employment as a whole, the McKinsey Global Institute recently concluded that half of todays work activities could be automated by 2055, but this could happen up to 20 years earlier.

Trump voters thought it was globalization that destroyed the good jobs in American manufacturing. In reality, it was globalization and technology and now technology is getting ready to destroy the not-so-good jobs too.

As an economic historian, I cling to the hope that current predictions of the impending redundancy of humanity like similar predictions at earlier stages of industrialization will turn out to be wrong. As a reader of Dostoevskys Notes from Underground, I also expect bloody-minded humanity to put up more of a fight against the automation of the world than Silicon Valley expects. (That is probably what Steve Bannon is thinking, too.)

Yet I watch my son play gleefully with a new toy robot called RoboSapien. The G.I. Joe we gave him for Christmas lies forgotten in a corner of his bedroom. Suddenly I felt a sense of kinship with that poor, discarded doll.

The goings-on in Washington that I follow so closely are the politics of a distracted age. But the more attention we give to @realDonaldTrump on Twitter, the less we pay to the economic revolution going on all around us. The future belongs to robotics, not fubatics.

See the article here:

From fubatics to robotics - The Boston Globe

Duluth East Daredevils Teach Robotics at the Boys and Girls Club

DULUTH, Minn. Custom built robots zipped through obstacle courses at the Boys and Girls Club of Duluth this summer.

I think its fun, says Rodrick Campbell, a robotics camper. I like to play with remote control cars and how to see how they work and I like to play with my drones.

It was all part of the second annual Lego Robotics Camp.

Ive always been interested in looking at the way things work and robotics really allowed me to expand on that, says Cameron Anderson, co-captain of the Duluth East Daredevils robotics team, and a teacher at the camp.

At the camp, the Duluth East High School Daredevils robotics team teaches elementary and middle school kids the basics of programming and robotics.

Its our way of reaching out to this group who normally wouldnt be able to have this experience, says Anderson.

If you want a good hockey player, you start them young, says Tim Velner, coach of the Daredevils. If you want a good engineer, you got to start them young, and thats what were trying to do.

The kids use those skills to design and build their own robots capable of making it through a challenging course.

Theyre given a problem to solve and then they have to engineer, both mechanically and with a program, a way to solve the problem, says Velner.

If the robot cant finish, its back to the drawing board for the campers.

Most problems arent solved overnight, says Velner. Theyre solved because we have the grit to stick with it.

The kids make upgrades until their robots are unstoppable.

I learned that you should never stop trying, says camper Ira Alves.

The kids have a lot of fun and, in the process, learn valuable skills needed in the modern world.

I love the idea of inspiring the next generation especially of engineers, says Anderson.

When Im growing up, I want to be a mechanical engineer, says Campbell.

Here is the original post:

Robotics Camp Teaches Kids Engineering and Problem Solving - FOX 21 Online

The H.O.T. Squad, a FIRST LEGO League (FLL) robotics team from Socorro traveled to Fairmont, West Virginia to compete in the Mountain States FIRST LEGO League Invitational July 7-9 9. The team was composed of local home-schooled and Cottonwood Valley Charter School students and led by coaches Gwen Valentino and Jim Jackson. The team competed in multiple categories with 40 of the best FLL teams from the United States, Canada, Brazil and Uruguay.

H.O.T Squad team members attended the invitational with two other New Mexican teams from Albuquerque. All teams competed in three categories: Core Values, Project, Robot and Robot Performance. The event was hosted by the West Virginia Robotics Alliance, Fairmont State University and the WV High Technology Foundation.

The Core Values are at the cornerstone of the FIRST LEGO League. During the competition, teams are tasked to demonstrate how they embraced each of those core values which are: 1. We are a team; 2. We do the work and find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors; 3. We know our coaches and mentors don't have all the answers; we learn together; 4. We honor the spirit of friendly competition; 5. What we discover is more important than what we win; 6. We share our experiences with others; 7. We display Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition in everything we do.; 8. We have FUN!

For team members Iriana and Ithan Valentino, they enjoyed the social and core values portion of the competition the most. Ithan shared that the dance party before the awards was my favorite part. Iriana said she best enjoyed, meeting team members from other countries and sharing what we have in common.

Team members Gavin Spitz and Jared Hitchcock expressed that they most enjoyed being able to travel and experience West Virginia while Joshua Walsh said his favorite experience was having a pickup soccer game with Team Brasil.

Walsh, the project team leader said, I felt really good about our project and I really did think we were going to come away with an award. That didnt happen but when I saw the judging rubric, we only had one category just below the top score and now I know how to fix it for the next competition. We had the judges rolling with laughter during our skit; they really got it.

The team created a pet evacuation kit called the My Pet Hero which could be customized to your pet when ordered from the website Walsh created.

Ixchel Valentino, the teams lead robot builder and programmer said, We knew going in to the competition that our robot performance scores were going to be in the middle of the pack so we just focused on our ability to communicate our engineering notebook and being able to perform under pressure. The team definitely faced the pressure. During the trip, the robots gyroscope had some damage meaning the robot couldnt line up correctly during a mission and test runs did not have the same results seen while practicing in Socorro.

It was tough but I actually liked programming on the fly when things didnt work on the second day, said Ixchel. On Saturday night, while other teams were playing and hanging out around campus, the H.O.T. Squad was brainstorming new programming code and approaches to up their robot performance scores. In spite of the challenges Ixchel said, It was super stressful but it was so worth it; in the end Im glad that I was a robot driver and I was so happy when everything worked in the final alliance round.

The H.O.T. Squad paired up with the Flaming Dragon Bots from Pennsylvania for the alliance competition; they made it to the semifinals and missed the finals by only 13 points. Walsh, the other driver added, Ixchel and I were stressed all weekend because the wall mission didnt work then our entire team exploded with cheers when it worked perfectly in the last round.

This opportunity wouldnt have been possible without the support of our fan club and local organizations, said team coach Gwen Valentino. We had donors who appreciate the program pay to get the team to West Virginia. New Mexico FIRST LEGO League partners, Socorro County, New Mexico Tech and the City of Socorro sponsored our entry fees and pit design and gave us tons of give-aways to share with participants. We were really able to show off our community. The 3rd Phase Foundation helped outfit the kids with very cool tee-shirts using the FIRST robotics grant won in 2016. Valentino added, We did a lot of bragging about Socorro and New Mexico Tech; out of our six team members, five of their parents (and one grandparent) are New Mexico Tech alumni.

Though the H.O.T Squad didnt come home with any awards this year, the team came back with excellent feedback from the judges to improve on their performance next year. Coach Valentino said the next FLL challenge will be released in August and most of the team members are expected to return. These kids had a taste of international competition and they want to qualify for the World Competition in 2018. I think they have a shot.

Read more from the original source:

Socorro robotics team competes against international field - El Defensor Chieftain

Adam Poulisse Staff writer @adampoulisse

ROCKFORD Emmarie Alexander wants to study engineering after high school, but her family will have a hard time affording it.

Her interest in robotics is giving her a boost.

Alexander was one of four high school students recent graduates or soon-to-be graduates who were awarded a $1,000 scholarship today at the Rock River Off-season Competition. The scholarship funds were evenly donated by the RVC Foundation and the competition, known as R2OC.

Alexander, an incoming senior at Belvidere High School, is part of the Flaming Monkeys robotics team, which includes students from all across Boone County. She hopes to apply her scholarship to either the University of Minnesota or the University of Chicago and incorporate engineering with her other interests.

"I like to write so I plan to minor in communications," she said. "Id like to combine engineering and working with animals.

It was the first time the scholarships were issued. Isabelle Thalman of Oswego; Spencer Tiegs of Waukesha, Wisconsin; and Andrew Tillotson of DeKalb were awarded the other three scholarships.

This year, a record-setting 36 teams from across Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana traveled to the Rock Valley College Physical Education Center, their robots in tow, to compete in a series of obstacle courses and puzzles. The event is hostedUTC Aerospace Systems and Woodward. Teams squared off in a series of challenges. Winners were announced at the end of the day, and teams from St. Charles; Pecatonica; Winnebago; Waukesha, Wisconsin; and Batavia took home the top prizes.

The students are held to the same procedures and industry standards as professional engineers, said Chris Magee, co-chair for the event.

She said having the event in Rockford is beneficial.

"Rockford is a manufacturing community and we're in desperate need of that skilled labor," Magee said. "What better way to get them interested than by playing with robotics."

Stateline Robotics, representing Hononegah High School, got off to a rocky start by noon. The teamlost one match after a mechanical error, one match was close, and it just "plain-old lost" another one, senior Nate Steward said.

Steward has been part of the robotics team since his freshman year of high school. He said it "fills a void" between outdoor sports seasons.

"You can hang out and build things," he said. "It's something that I've enjoyed doing in high school, but I don't know if I want to do it afterwards."

Hannah Sotoris and Grace Sotoris are part of the Wolfbyte team from Saint Ignatius College Prep Robotics Club in Chicago. Grace, an incoming senior, said participating in robotics has helped her learn tricks of the trade.

Hannah, a sophomore, said she appreciates the hands-on experience.

"Ienjoy it more than sports," she said. "The teacher supervises but they dont interfere. You do it yourself.

Adam Poulisse: 815-987-1344; apoulisse@rrstar.com;@adampoulisse

See the original post:

Scholarships awarded at Rockford robotics competition - Rockford Register Star

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) When you think of robots many think of science fiction but this morning Dr. Matthew Lopresti stopped by our studio to talk about the strides robotics are making in the medical field.

Some questions Dr. Lopresti answers in the above video are:

1) Theres been an uptick with automation/robotics in the medical field and this is expected to continue. Why?

2) The pictures shown are robotics that aid in hair transplantation. What exactly does this do?

3) As a surgeon, what do you look for when something comes into the market? Does it replace the surgeon or how much should it aid?

4) How does the patient benefit exactly?

For more information on Dr. Lopresti head to HairDr.com

Like Loading...

WTNH NEWS8 provides commenting to allow for constructive discussion on the stories we cover. In order to comment here, you acknowledge you have read and agreed to our Terms of Service. Commenters who violate these terms, including use of vulgar language or racial slurs, will be banned. Please be respectful of the opinions of others. If you see an inappropriate comment, please flag it for our moderators to review. Also, you can now block any inappropriate user by simple selecting the drop down menu on the right of any comment and selection "Block User" from there.

Continued here:

Robotics making an impact in medicine | WTNH Connecticut News - WTNH Connecticut News (press release)

Genevieve DiNatale @cnb_DiNatale

CRESTVIEW The 6th annual Ed-Spark STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Lego Robotics Camp kicked off Monday at Shoal River Middle School.

Right now they are working on building a basic EV3 Tribot configuration. Its standard with all the Lego Mindstorms, and basically this is just to help them learn how to build and get used to the programming so when we give them challenges later this week they will be able to complete those efficiently, said Jacob Thursby, a 17-year-old camp mentor and rising senior at Niceville High School.

I went to this camp last year because I just have a fascination about robots, so my mom thought it would be a good idea to see how it is and thats how I met my coach, Ms. Allen, 12-year-old Marysia Ray said while building a robot with classmate Taylor Smith.

After building their robots, campers hooked them to a computer using Bluetooth or programming cords.

They are going to build a Lego robot and they will use the programming from the computer and it will download onto the robot and the robot will work autonomously, said Laurie Allen, the camps co-founder and a teacher at Shoal River Middle School.

Tim Sexton is a STEM teacher at Davidson Middle School who began the program with Allen after meeting her at the science center about six years ago.

I really enjoyed playing sorry, I mean working with the Legos and wanted to start something new and we wanted to build a robotics program (at) the north end of the county and to do so we started this camp, Sexton said

He said the skills middle school students develop at the camp are manifold.

One is teamwork. They have to work with a person they probably never met before, and to work as a team to accomplish whatever given tasks after the robot is built," he said. "It also teaches them to modify and troubleshoot their robots when something isnt working right, so there is some troubleshooting and engineering skills, (such as) building attachments that would work for emissions."

Read more here:

Crestview students learn robotics at STEM summer camp - The Northwest Florida Daily News

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --

The Center for Character and Leadership Development hosted 25 robotics educators from across the U.S. at the FIRST Leadership Experience June 24-26 in Polaris Hall.

Air Force Recruiting sponsored and accompanied the teachers, all members of the national organization For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, or FIRST. Most teach at the middle and high school level and are commonly called FIRST Mentors.

"We wanted to attract the best and brightest here and create a STEM connection with them," said Capt. Ross McKnight, an Academy grad and Air Force recruiter.

The mission of FIRST is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based robotics teams that build science, engineering and technology skills. They engage kindergarten through high school students to build their STEM skills and inspire their imagination by fostering self-confidence, communication and leadership.

"Our vision is to transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders," said FIRST Founder Dean Kamen.

McKnight said the mission of his office is to connect the Air Force with like-minded organizations who foster STEM goals in U.S. education.

The teachers participated in sessions designed to hone their mentoring skills through immersion with the Air Force core values. Sessions covered team building, leadership, creative problem solving and organizational skills.

Adrianne Strange of Air Force Recruiting said the CCLD was the obvious place to bring the group to discuss new ways of leading tomorrow's STEM stand-outs.

Mentors were also given tours of the CCLD, mechanics lab, aero lab, robotics lab and cadet pavilion. They also took a turn on the ropes course.

"It's great to be reminded of how the Air Force core values should be at the fore-front of our leadership and therefore our teams and classrooms," said Tom Shultz, a teacher and FIRST Mentor from Michigan. "I'm grateful for this tremendous opportunity which will undoubtedly make a positive impact on my classroom students and [robotics] team. I'm sure I speak for the other 24 teachers when I say I'm excited to see the domino effect that this will have on all of the students in our lives."

Originally posted here:

Academy hosts leadership conference with FIRST Robotics Mentors - U.S. Air Force Academy