AMRoC FabLab

We're excited to launch the first of our Fab Fridays programs - instructional sessions across a variety of interests from prototyping and fabrication to arts and engineering. We're kicking things off in April with a 3 session exploration of Electronics and Underwater Robotics for middle and high school students, with guest instructor Michael McGovern, an engineer with MITRE Corp , giving students a deep dive into MATE ROV COMPETITION . Learn more and sign up at the link! Class is limited to 20 students. https://lnkd.in/eVACKFnM

We're headed to the Synapse Florida #SynapseSummit this week, Tuesday, March 25 at Raymond James Stadium. Find us in the Young Innovators section, in the Connections Concourse where students from our FIRST robotics teams, TampaHacks , Scoutlier by Aecern, as well as Connect-IT 360 , Junior Achievement USA Tampa, and USF Nault Center for Entrepreneurship will be showcasing their work. Meet and celebrate the next generation of innovation leaders and creators, check out student panel discussions, pitches and presentations, robot and coding demos, and participate in student hosted Lightning Talks (sign up here - https://lnkd.in/eiSjm9D8) Come be inspired, and help inspire!

Whattaweek! We celebrated our FIRST Tech Challenge team, Team Duct Tape's great season, there were 3D printing projects, Robotics Education & Competition Foundation Aerial Drone Competition practice, and a Hillsborough County Public Schools field trip for Chamberlain HS students. Next week, the Edgar Allan Ohms Robotics Team heads to the Tallahassee Regional FRC Regional, Tampa Bay Inventors Council meets, there's drone meetups and shop projects. And we'll be working on plans for Gulf Coast MakerCon. Stay tuned!

?? So excited to share how my students continue to engage in expansive relevant and rigorous engineering design challenges in ST+RE+AM Integration as we push into mechatronics for elementary grades to create a systems approach to the design, development and implementation of complex engineering systems framing the transfer of functionality from the physical to the information domain by infusing the different fields of engineering for the career workspace of today including the auto/shipping/airplane industry, advanced manufacturing, the Internet of Things IoT (e.g., camera-equipped doorbells, smartphone-accessible video security systems, smart refrigerators, drones, robotic vacuums, etc.), medical applications, national defense, communication, data processing, generative A.I. and more. Scoutlier CEO Brandy Jackson and Head Curriculum Designer Beth Price hosted another fabulous afternoon where we designed and built complex 'doodle bots' using materials construction, circuitry, the physics of sound/vibrations, and soldering… thus empowering our next generation of teachers to build confidence to get under the hood to learn how things work so that they will bring that same perspective into their classrooms. *This event occurred on location at AMRoC FabLab with gratitude to the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation for program resources and support. Learn more about AMRoC Fab Lab's work and support their mission by visiting their website (AMROCTampaBay.com).

It's robots all the way down at AMROC on Saturdays, as our community FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge teams head into the final stretch before their tournaments in March. in addition to all the cool engineering skills they're exercising, they're also learning to work with challenges of teamwork, collaboration, communucations, time management and deadlines. In short, they're learning to be good people working together towards excellence on a common goal. It's a pretty good effort!

AMROC Operations Manager Vicky Gonzalez completed a very cool 3D printing project today, as part of her ongoing The Fab Foundation Fab Academy training. These prints, which caught the interest of one of our community robotics team students, provide great visual representations of 3D printing tolerances, angles, bridges and gaps that need to be taken into consideration in design and printing projects.

Robots, Drones, CNC training and Sewing filled AMROC this afternoon, marking the start of another fabulous week of fabbing at the Fab Lab!

So much everything at AMROC over the last few days, with awesome visitors like Ms Ora Tanner and her sister, Middleton High School during FTC Team Duct Tape 's Valentine's Day FIRST Tech Challenge Scrimmage , FRC Team Edgar Alkan Ohms steaming towards their first competition, the Refugee and Migrant Women's Initiative - RAMWI Sew Much Hope program making beautiful things in the Sewing Lab, a student laser cut project, and some pretty sweet remodeling, including a new freshly appointed training classrom and a more spacious layout in the main meeting area. Stop in to check out this week and visit our calendar page at AMROCTampaBay.com to see what's coming up and how you can join in!

We did more of all the wonderful things today, building the knowledge and skills toolbox with a sweet baby blanket in the sewing social, AI exploration in the Tampa Bay Inventors Council meeting and Phoenix Robotics students assembling swerve drives in the shop.

Oh look, we have a water game. Thank you Motorola Solutions. We can't wait to get this program underway!