Inspiring The Next Generation of Builders: Lessons Learned In 10 Years of iRobot STEM

Nothing captures the imagination of kids like a robot.

I know this because robots captured my imagination as a kid (yes, that’s me in the picture above). But I also know this because I’ve been watching robots capture the imagination of kids through iRobot STEM, our company’s program for inspiring the next generation of builders. This past Saturday marked the 10th anniversary of our program and I figure what better time than now to share what we’ve learned through our company’s efforts.

So what have we learned?

First, while we officially launched iRobot STEM 10 years ago, our company’s STEM education efforts started well before then. I remember visiting my brother’s middle school in 1992 and showing he and his classmates Genghis. Early on in these efforts, we learned how powerful robots are as a tool for generating excitement in kids. When kids see an actual robot… in front them… moving around in their world, and not one on TV or in the movies… their wonder and curiosity multiplies well beyond what you might expect. Then, when you tell them you played a part in building the robot standing before them… all they want to know is “how?”

For this reason, we also learned that it’s not enough to just to show the robots… you’ve got to take them apart too. Why? Well, it’s really the best way to answer that question of “how”. Otherwise students will just think of robots as magic. And if its magic, it’s not something they think they can build. So take them apart we did, one screw at a time. Once students see that robots are a collection of actuators, servos, gears, and sensors working together to make the “magic” they see before them, they cease thinking of it as magic and start thinking about it as something they might be able to one day build!

Of course once we showed students how the robots worked… there were those that wanted to build one right away.  Yet building one from scratch is very hard, even for the us, the pros. We realized we needed to make it easier for those students to build a robot of their own. And given that we’d already built what amounts to a mobile robotic platform in Roomba, why not somehow make that available to students to lower the barrier to entry? So we did. That’s what the original Create was, and that’s what Create 2 is today. What have students themselves done with it? I’ll just point you to the Light Conservation Robot, which takes a decidedly different approach to ensuring you conserve energy.

Instructions for how to build the Light Conservation Robot, as well as several others – including DJ Create, DJ Turntable, and Lighbot – have been posted by students, enthusiasts, and iRoboteers, so that other students can in turn build these robots themselves.

We also realized that the iRobot office itself could be a very powerful tool. Why not invite students to come to us? So we did. We built the Cool Stuff room where we put many of our creations on display – both the successes and failures, the weird and the wonderful – along with the Family Innovation space where students could unleash their inner builder. This space has been so successful in inspiring students that we’re actually planning to build newer, even better spaces – thus our spaces are being upgraded over the next few months (if you’re interested in getting a tour of our office, do request a visit).

In addition, we also learned how pervasive code is to success in STEM-related careers. Personally, my experience has led me to believe that coding is a language that will hold the same value to people moving forward as any spoken language. iRobot believes learning to code is such a significant 21st century skill that we now offer Root, a robot that teaches kids as young as four to code, and then scales up the challenge as those kids become more proficient at coding.

Yet for all the talk of robots – showing them off, taking them apart, building them - the most important confirmation I’ve gotten throughout all the effort we’ve put in over the years is this: it’s people, not robots, that play the most important part in inspiring the next generation of builders. Because people are the most important part of the inspirational equation, every iRoboteer is provided two workdays each year to go spend inspiring students to pursue careers in STEM – these could be elementary school students, middle schoolers, high schoolers, and college students too.

In fact, we’ve learned it’s often in college where students interested in STEM encounter their biggest bumps in the road. They might struggle with a class, or even fail one. And because they’ve been taught their entire life that failure is NOT okay, it makes them stop. Yet in the world of Robotics… everyone struggles, everyone fails. The robots won’t tell you that – but the people that build them will.

This is why we started our Permission to Fail tour. Through the tour, iRoboteers visit college campuses and tell their own stories of failure – but most importantly perseverance – and how it led them to becoming the builders at iRobot they are now.

We also learned that there’s no sense in undertaking our quest at iRobot to inspire the next generation of builders all on our own. That’s why we worked with Congress to establish National Robotics Week almost as soon as we launched our STEM program 10 years ago. It’s been a joy to watch NRW grow from 50 affiliated events around the country to over 330 events covering all 50 states in the USA.

10 years into iRobot STEM and nearly 30 years into iRobot, I’ve learned that these things really matter. They are inspiring the next generation of builders. In 2018 alone, iRoboteers gave students 110 tours of our office, conducted 332 classroom visits, and inspired over 44,000 students as a result. Many of the students that visit our offices go on to pursue STEM-related fields, like Qiana Curcuru who joined iRobot as a student Co-Op and now works in MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. Others take it one step further, deciding to devote their time to inspiring students to pursue STEM-related careers themselves, like Xyla Foxlin, who after creating the huggable robot Pari, founded Beauty and the Bolt, a non-profit focused on lowering the barrier to entry for women and minorities in STEM fields.

Going forward, one last thing is very clear: while we’ve accomplished a considerable amount through iRobot STEM, we have an opportunity and an obligation to do more. After all, the STEM gap still exists, and it is our gap to fill.

I very much look forward to the next 10 years of iRobot STEM, the students we will inspire, and most importantly, how they’ll change the world.