According to a news release last week, the companies will donate 30 STEM robotics kits to McKinley Middle School, the D.C. public school district’s first STEM-focused building for grades six through eight, representing an expansion of the Smart Factory Believers program that started in Wichita, Kan., in October 2022. Within three years, the program will expand to additional middle and high schools in the district, impacting about 1,600 students.
Under the Smart Factory Believers program, Deloitte, AWS and other partners are poised to promote STEM education across the nation using the same technology that has enhanced various industries. The program is based at Wichita State University, where researchers seek to employ machine-to-machine communications to digitally transform the manufacturing industry, according to the news release.
“The same technology that brings mobile banking to our fingertips, speeds medical discoveries to save lives, and is now pioneering the future of manufacturing, can be used to transform teaching and learning,” Kim Majerus, vice president of global education and U.S. state and local government at AWS, said in the news release. “At AWS, we are committed to working with K-12 schools and higher-education institutions to improve student outcomes, enhance learning environments, and build the next-generation tech workforce.”
The news release said financially disadvantaged and minority students are less likely to have access to high-quality STEM programs, with Nishita Henry, Deloitte’s chief innovation officer, citing a Deloitte study from 2018 that found a widening gap between manufacturing skills and available jobs that could see 2.4 million jobs unfilled by 2028. Henry called the Smart Factory Believers program a “transformative mechanism” to help remove barriers for students.
“We believe that growing diversity in STEM fields is critically important, and giving students exposure to the possibilities of STEM and innovation-focused careers will help build a stronger workforce of the future,” Henry said in a public statement.
As the students utilize the materials in the STEM robotics kits, they will learn to code, program, test and debug their creations, the news release said. Along the way they will also learn “soft skills” like troubleshooting, collaboration, problem-solving and documentation.
All told, the Smart Factory Believers program has donated more than 1,100 robotics kits used by 3,700 students in New Mexico, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas and Wichita, according to the news release.
