Ruben Gameros

When I am asked what we do in robotics, I tend to answer it with something about ‘making science relevant and exciting.’ Not the about how it is fun to build, or why programming is a 21st century skill etc. which is also accurate.

This Tuesday, I had ASU researcher and robotics mentor Ruben Gameros kick off a brainstorming session with my robotics team. The topic was ‘animal-human interaction.’ I loved how Ruben got the students thinking of ‘animal’s that are often not on their radar: bats, bees and insects.

Bat’s after all are mammals, with amazing navigation skills. They also help our survival in ways that often go unnoticed. Ruben is familiar with ‘critters’ for another reason. He works in a field of bio-mimicry, and swarm robotics!

Just got back from a short trip to Sri Lanka, where I conducted two workshops for teachers.The first was in Maharagama on Dec 15th & 16th. The second workshop was in Kandy on Dec 18th.

Here are some stories about the workshops:

Nanda Wannianayake’s post: Full STEAM Ahead – Best Practices in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths Workshop in NIE

KJZZ Radio – Andrew Bernier’s report: Arizona Native American Students Travel To Sri Lanka As STEAM Ambassadors. Listen to Andrew Bernier’s report here.

LMD Magazine: U.S. Native American “Science Ambassadors” Program Helps Sri Lankan Science Teachers

Much thanks to my co-presenters:

Dr. Paul Funk – Engineer, US Dept. of Agriculture, New Mexico (Via Skype)
Ruben Gameros – Autonomous Collective Systems Laboratory, Arizona State University (Via Skype)
Scott Logan – Montessori International School, Mesa, Arizona (Via Skype)
Lal Medawattegedera – Lecturer, Open University of Sri Lanka
Nalaka Gunewardene – Science writer, author, trustee of the Science and Development Network
Nazly Ahmed – Web App Dev at Social Seed Media

Also the two Keynote Speakers:

Dr. Ajit Madurapperuma – Dir. Of Information Communication Technology, ICTA
Dr. Nalin Samarasinha – Astrophysicist at Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona (Via Skype)

Finally, thanks to the American Center in Sri Lanka who made this possible – especially Joshua Shen.