Building the Future for Our Youth

Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future”. 

At LexisNexis Risk Solutions, we understand the importance of getting teens involved in science and technology.  As part of our HPCC Systems Academic Program, one of our goals is to help increase student interest in STEM topics and pursue STEM-type careers in an effort to advance cutting-edge innovation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  This year, through our HPCC Systems fund, we are proud to sponsor NSU University School and American Heritage School.  Both are based in south Florida and active educators in STEM-related programs.

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of visiting both schools.  My first stop was the NSU University School Robotics Team who gave me a demonstration of their autonomous robot. Very impressive!  And I’m thrilled to hear that the team won the AMAZE AWARD at the 2017 Vex Robotics World’s Competition in April. This award is one of the most prestigious honors and is presented to a team who has built a competition robot that clearly demonstrates overall quality and has a solid mechanical design along with demonstrated robot programming, robustness, strong performance, and consistency. Only one Amaze Award per division (out of 18,000 teams) is given per year.

In addition, they also took home the Best Build, Program, and Design awards at the World’s Competition. Way to go, Sharks!

                                     NSU University School Robotics Team

My second stop was the American Heritage School Robotics lab and field. Team 5472 Stallion Robotics were in the midst of their build season on their very first autonomous golf cart. The team shared with me their design blueprints and how they are leveraging machine learning algorithms and TensorFlow into their design. As we walked over to the simulation field, the team demonstrated a mock play of the robot and even allowed us to roll up our sleeves and take control!  They were tightening the last nuts and bolts as they prepared to work on the electronics components next. A big congrats to Team 5472 in receiving the NASA sponsored Engineering Inspiration Award in the FIRST Robotics competition at the Brazos Valley Regional Tournament in April.

                                                                            Team 5472 Stallion Robotics from American Heritage School

LexisNexis Risk Solutions, through its HPCC Systems initiative, is very proud to support both of these schools as they continue to push the limits of what technology can achieve and build a better future for our next generation technology leaders!