A group of local middle school students participated in a hands-on STEM outreach program in July to learn about virtual reality and robotics. The program director, Dr. Pamela Gilchrist, is an Outreach and Engagement Incentive Grants Awardee for 2019. Dr. Gilchrist describes the program and its impact in the following overview.
The Outreach and Engagement Incentive Grants Program serves to address significant community challenges by aligning interdisciplinary faculty, their expertise, their students, and their research. The incentive grants connect NC State faculty to applied scholarship opportunities in communities, stimulating interdisciplinary proposals to compete for funding that will foster innovation between faculty, staff, students, and community partners and help kickstart potential future research and programming.
Virtual Reality and Robotics STEM Outreach Program Overview
Thirty-three middle school students from southeast Raleigh, Knightdale, Selma, Clayton, Durham, and Cary, North Carolina, participated in Imhotep Academy for one week in July. They discovered the applications of virtual reality, robotics, and algebra at The Science House through activities in physical and immersive virtual environments. Through the support of the Office of Outreach and Engagement at NC State University, the young inventors built a robotic arm, researched careers in techno-driven fields, learned algebraic principles to program MeArm robots, and experienced virtual reality and robotics through laboratory tours facilitated by Dr. Karen Chen and Dr. Xu Xu in the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. To conclude the experience, the young inventors presented their products at the program finale and were presented awards of completion for their accomplishments.
Imhotep Academy is a premier pre-college program of the College of Sciences founded in 1992 to introduce underrepresented student groups (African-American, Hispanic, Native Americans, and females) to the wonders of biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, statistics, and marine, earth, and atmospheric sciences. The year-round program provides students opportunities to participate in hands-on investigations, laboratory tours, field trips, and communications with STEM professionals in an effort to gain an understanding of the selected topics in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Virtual immersive environments are poised to provide essential tools to students (future workers) competing in the 21st-century workforce, especially in areas like Southeast Raleigh where economic growth is crucial. One of the students thanked the staff and university for the experience. He shared, “Thank you for putting together this program. I got to experience a lot of things I don’t usually get to experience. I ran into some issues with the MeArm but in the end, it turned out fine. So I learned patience and grit. I learned a lot about virtual and augmented realities and robots. The field trip was awesome and a lot of fun and I am much better at coding now.”
To learn more about Imhotep Academy 2019-2020 program schedule, visit go.ncsu.edu/imhotepacademy or contact the program director, Dr. Pamela O. Gilchrist.