STEM Southwest Podcast

From construction to entrepreneur, today's guest has always incorporated cutting edge technology in order to innovate and challenge the status quo.  John Mierzwa is doing that in many places throughout the Duke City and the entire region.  His strong connections have helped him to broker important deals that are impacting the way the rest of the world sees the Computer Science Workforce of the Southwest!

Show Notes

John Mierzwa is CEO & Co-Founder of Ingenuity Software Labs.  He is the Founder of Deep Dive Coding Bootcamps, a software development bootcamp in Albuquerque, later acquired by Central New Mexico Community College.  John is also leading the DARTInitiative effort to create local software jobs and reverse brain drain by promoting New Mexico as the best value in the U.S. for software development.

Deep Dive Coding

Ingenuity Software Labs

CNM: Central New Mexico Community College

DART Initiative

Future Focused Education

TechHire New Mexico

New Mexico Technology Council

Website recommendations:

TechCrunch

InfoWorld

STEM Rockstar:

Lisa Adkins

Favorite quote:

“A true leader is not the one with the most followers, but one who creates the most leaders.” - by Neal Donald Walsch

"In science, ‘fact’ can only mean ‘confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.’  I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.” - by Stephen Jay Gould

Contact information:    

[email protected]

Peter Balyta, PhD will most certainly leave a STEM legacy to his own children and to millions of kids all over the world through his work as President of Educational Technology at Texas Instruments.

This episode is full of so much information, listeners will want to grab pen and paper to take notes as Peter shares important STEM resources.  What started with a kick in the head, this sports enthusiast details how he was shocked into the pursuit of knowledge during his high school years.  We are amazed at how often you can find this once math and science teacher out in the community encouraging students at robotics competitions and STEM events.  Balyta is certainly a STEM Rockstar who is Inspiring Generation STEM!

Show Notes

Peter Balyta, Ph.D., is vice president of academic engagement and corporate citizenship for Texas Instruments, and president of its Education Technology business. He is responsible for leading teams that focus on the mission of teaching, learning and being inspired by STEM subjects and the impact Texas Instruments makes in the communities in which it operates. This includes several groups and programs that span Texas Instruments, all of which aim to help students develop a strong educational foundation, setting them up for future success in a workforce that increasingly demands STEM skills.

Girl-Powered

STEM Behind Cool Careers

TI Robotics System Learning Kit

TI-Innovator™ Rover

Python

Book recommendation:

Path to the Stars:  My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist , by Sylvia Acevedo

Favorite quotes:

“The role of the teacher is to create the conditions for invention rather than provide ready-made knowledge,” by Seymour Papert

"If you only do what you can do, you will never be more than you are now," by Master Shifu

Contact information:    

Twitter

Instagram

Linkedin

Facebook

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a part of a robotics team?  Our guests this week have been competing for years, and are going to share their experiences and knowledge with you!  Not only do they have great character, these four Presidents of R4Robotics led their team to the top BEST Award at the 2018 TX BEST Robotics competition that was held in December 2018!  Of course, you may realize that this is the team that we coach, and you even get to hear from our youngest daughter, Bethany, in this episode!

On the night before our competition, we asked the entire team to raise their hand if they had learned anything during the robotics season.  We further asked them to raise their hand if they had fun or made a new friend.  Then, we asked them to look around at the raised hands at which time they realized that They Had Already Won!  That, in fact, it didn’t really matter what happened on the gamefield so as long as they did their very best.  Today’s guests took that message to heart and gave it their all up until the last minute…and all of us were surprised when the team name was called for the top award.  Join in the laughter and the wisdom from four of our youngest STEM Rockstars on today’s episode!

Show Notes:

Statement from students’ parents

Jared

The most powerful lesson Jared has learned by being part of R4Robotics is that all of his various interests and talents have, and that they lead to real-life success.

Reva

This morning, a friend said that he watched KRQE in the Morning last Friday, when Reva was being interviewed.  He was quite impressed that she was able to hold her own during the interview, and was able to answer direct questions with complete and thoughtful answers.  I responded that it has come from years of practice and training through the dedicated efforts of being a part of the robotics team.  Reva is committed to doing a very good job, no matter what the task is.

Bethany

Bethany was born into robotics.  Through the team experience, she has had to learn to stand in the shadow of her siblings and make her own way.  It has helped her grow into a mature young woman whose leadership skills far surpass many of her peers.  We couldn't be prouder of the young woman she has become through the experience.

Ryan

I think the most powerful experience for Ryan is the growth in confidence he has gained for being able to lead a team.  The skills he has been taught, and has learned from actually leading meetings and build sessions, not only gave him confidence in his own abilities and ideas, but will serve him well in all of his future activities.

Contact information for R4Robotics,

Be Greater Than Average, and R4Creating

R4Robotics (Robotics Team)

Rio Rancho Robo Runners

Facebook

Twitter

Be Greater Than Average (Robotics Camps)

Be Greater Than Average

Facebook

R4Creating (Not-for-Profit)

R4Creating

Facebook

Phylecia Jones is affectionately known as the Budgetologist. As a motivational speaker and podcaster, she has been getting people to clean up their financial act and find ways to “feed their budget.”  Her recent Ted Talk has brought her back into the STEM community, something she thought was part of her past after retiring five years ago.  Her message is powerful and clear, i.e., we need to create new stereotypes to make the world a better place. Please join us as we delve into her background in STEM, baton twirling, and her passion for photography and travel.  Our biggest salute to this veteran who is making a difference in the world!

Show Notes

With a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and a Master’s in Systems Engineering, Phylecia Jones proudly served 13 years as a civilian Computer Scientist for the U.S. Navy and Department of Defense, supporting sailors and soldiers across the world, but realized that it was not enough.  At the age of 36 years old, she took an early retirement and started a journey that would forever change her life… entrepreneurship.  As the CEO of Keep up with Mrs. Jones LLC, Creator of Budget School, a premier business financial education platform, and Host of the Budget School Podcast, Phylecia is the savvy go-to budgeting nerd, speaker, and trainer.

Women of Denver

"All Girls are Great at Math" by Phylecia Jones at TEDxCherryCreekWomen2018

Ask the Budgetologist

American Society for Engineering Education

STEM Rockstar:

Katherine Johnson

Patricia Bath

Josephine Cochrane

Book recommendations:

Becoming by Michelle Obama

The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage, by Mel Robbins

You Are a Badass®: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life, by Jen Sincero

The Twilight Saga White Collection, by Stephenie Meyer

Favorite quote:               

“Being a great scientist is not knowing all of the answers, but knowing how to find the answers.”

Contact information:

Keep Up with Mrs. Jones

Today’s guest is a little untraditional, but we know you will find her absolutely magical!  Micaela Brown is bursting with great ideas and passion that is sure to capture your interest.  She launched herself into the entrepreneurial community and taught herself the technology needed to support her seven business plans.  You may have heard of Dinner en Blanc, Blush & Whimsey, or even the Whiskey Classic; these are all born of Micaela’s desire to create magic in everyday life. The science behind her cosmetic line is based on chemistry including special ingredients, body temperature and pH, but that is just the beginning of her story. She has some exciting events coming up…. but we can’t share that secret yet. First, let’s listen to the interview and then we’ll tell you more! 

Show Notes

An entrepreneur with a social media reach of over 100k followers, Micaela Brown has created a national event marketing voice with an audience interested in event marketing, marketing, branding, and entrepreneurship.  Micaela’s work has been featured by Forbes Travel, The New York Times, Travel Pulse, American Towns, New Mexico Entertainment Magazine, Albuquerque the Magazine, Albuquerque Business First, The Santafean, Santa Fe New Mexican, SantaFe.com, and NewsCastic.  Initiatives created/founded by Micaela include Diner en Blanc Albuquerque, The Running of the Chihuahuas, StartupABQ, Christmas at Hogwarts, Santa Fe Foodie Classic, The Whiskey Classic, Inspire People Media, and Blush & Whimsy.  Micaela is a British-American Project Fellow, and in 2017, she became a Fellow of The Royal Society of the Arts.

Blush & Whimsy

Whiskey Classic

Digital Marketer

Gary Vaynerchuk

Game of Thrones Scotch Whisky Collection

Amy the Robot scheduler

STEM Rockstar:

Paul Alexander

Drone U

Favorite quote:             

"Choose one thing and become a master of it.  Choose a second thing and become a master of that.  When you become a master of two worlds (say, engineering and business), you can bring them together in a way that will a) introduce hot ideas to each other, so they can have idea sex and make idea babies that no one has seen before and b) create a competitive advantage because you can move between worlds, speak both languages, connect the tribes, mash the elements to spark fresh creative insight until you wake up with the epiphany that changes your life.”  - Justine Musk

STEM Hero:

Elon Musk

Contact information:

Micaela Brown

You might say that Jonathan Firth flew into New Mexico through suborbital space aboard Virgin Galactic. A native of the UK, he arrived in the Land of Enchantment with a short-term plan that has since led to a bit longer stay (as so many of us have experienced). He uses his vast knowledge of business, having worked for the Virgin brand for many years, to collaborate with others to build an undeniable STEM ecosystem in Southern New Mexico. A fourth-generation Mechanical Engineer (his son is the fifth), Jonathan shares many STEM lessons from the "States" and abroad. Listeners will be excited to mark their calendar for April 2019 when they can meet Jonathan in-person at the week-long Las Cruces Space Festival!

Show Notes

Jonathan Firth is the Executive Vice President at Virgin Galactic, the spaceflight company that is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights for future astronaut customers and for space science missions flying from Spaceport America in Sierra County, New Mexico.  Jonathan is English, and came from London to live in Las Cruces, NM four years ago. He is a member of the company’s leadership team, a mechanical engineer by background, and has been active and passionate throughout his career on initiatives to inspire and educate the next generation, particularly in the STEAM arena.

Virgin Galactic

Spaceport America

Las Cruces Space Festival

Book recommendations:

1. To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the  Modest Problem of Death, by Mark O’ Connell
2. A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking
3. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
4. The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe
5. Cosmos, by Carl Sagan

STEM Heroes:

Richard Feynman

George Orwell

Favorite quote:          

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” - by Albert Einstein

STEM Rockstar:

Dr. Bill Gutman

"How can we make space travel more accessible" at TedXABQ

Contact information:

[email protected]

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Mark Hyatt could fly airplanes before he learned how to drive cars. His rich background in STEM began with his long career in the U.S. Air Force. After several retirements, he is now in a bonus career that is disrupting education in his home state of Colorado. Mark's initiative and program, Falcon Aerolab, is providing STEM training for students through a special innovation district. Mark is striving to add to the number of home-grown aerospace professionals and fill a pipeline that is currently being filled by importing professionals from out of state. In this episode, you will hear about Mark's program and the ways that he hopes to scale it to serve more students.

Show Notes

Mark Hyatt is a passionate educational entrepreneur. His favorite quote is: “If you save one child, you save the whole world.” Calling Colorado home since 1970, he’s served as a fighter pilot squadron commander in the Air Force; and advisor to the Secretary of Defense, and the current and previous White House Administration on school choice, safety, social climate, and culture issues. He’s also served as Vice Commandant at the U.S. Air Force Academy and its Director of Center for Character and Leadership Development; President of the largest charter school in Colorado, The Classical Academy; and Executive Director of the Charter School Institute in Denver. He’s testified at the Colorado Legislature to keep partial funding to public schools for homeschool students. His most important job is being married for 40 years, and having three children and five grandchildren.

United States Air Force Academy

Falcon AeroLab

Cyber Symposium

Key Lime Air

The Classical Academy: College Pathways

Book recommendation:

Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell

Contact information:

[email protected]

If you have been involved with any part of competitive robotics, you have most likely seen the smiling face of this week's STEM Rockstar, Karthik Kanagasabapathy.  When you listen to our conversation with Karthik, you will understand why he is often at the microphone at FIRST and IFI/VEX Robotics events.  He excels in communicating the fun and passion of competitive robotics, but also has the engineering background as a past competitor himself to understand the competitions.  We were so thrilled that our daughter Makenzie, who works at Innovation First International, was able to connect us with our special guest.  Our conversation with this internationally known STEM Rockstar was so engaging that listeners will get to enjoy two episodes with Karthik.

Show Notes 

Karthik spent nine years at Innovation First International where he was responsible for exciting young people about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) education via participation in the VEX Robotics Competition in which he designed competitive robotic games that have been played by over 75,000 teams of students around the globe.  He has won numerous awards for his dedication to furthering robotics education, including the prestigious Woodie Flowers Finalist Award for exemplary mentoring and being a positive role model for high school students through the FIRST Robotics Competition.  He also hosts various international robotic events, having worked with media personalities such as Mythbusters' Grant Imahara and Kari Byron, given an internationally recognized TEDx talk, and hosted televised robotics specials on ESPN and CBS.

Innovation First International

Dean Kamen (Co-Founder of the FIRST Robotics Competition)

There are several robotics competitions including:

BEST Robotics

FIRST

RoboRAVE International

VEX Robotics

Robotics Alliance Project (list of robotic competitions)

Resources on Karthik:

The Subtle Secret of Success: Karthik Kanagasabapathy at TEDxUTSC

Competitive Robotics: Bringing Excitement Back to the Canadian Classroom, by Karthik Kanagasabapathy

Simbotics Robotics Team

Book recommendations:

Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, by Anna Funder

The Art of Smart Football, by Chris B. Brown

STEM Hero:

Dr. Woodie Flowers (Co-Founder the FIRST Robotics Competition and considered the pioneer and grandfather of competitive robotics)

Dr. Woodie Flowers - STEM Hall of Fame Induction 2017

Favorite quote:

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm," by Ralph Waldo Emerson

STEM Rockstar:

Paul Copioli

Paul Copioli and Karthik Kanagasabapathy, VEX Worlds 2018

(photo credit: Makenzie Gruenig, IFI)

Contact information:

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

If you have been involved with any part of competitive robotics, you have most likely seen the smiling face of this week's STEM Rockstar, Karthik Kanagasabapathy.  When you listen to our conversation with Karthik, you will understand why he is often at the microphone at FIRST and IFI/VEX Robotics events.  He excels in communicating the fun and passion of competitive robotics, but also has the engineering background as a past competitor himself to understand the competitions.  We were so thrilled that our daughter Makenzie, who works at Innovation First International, was able to connect us with our special guest.  Our conversation with this internationally known STEM Rockstar was so engaging that listeners will get to enjoy two full episodes with Karthik.

Show Notes

Karthik spent nine years at Innovation First International where he was responsible for exciting young people about STEAM (Science, Technology, Education, Arts, and Math) education via participation in the VEX Robotics Competition in which he designed competitive robotic games that have been played by over 75,000 teams of students around the globe.  He has won numerous awards for his dedication to furthering robotics education, including the prestigious Woodie Flowers Finalist Award for exemplary mentoring and being a positive role model for high school students through the FIRST Robotics Competition.  He also hosts various international robotic events, having worked with media personalities such as Mythbusters' Grant Imahara and Kari Byron, given an internationally recognized TEDx talk, and hosted televised robotics specials on ESPN and CBS.

Innovation First International

Dean Kamen (Co-Founder of FIRST Robotics Competition)

There are several robotics competitions including:

BEST Robotics

FIRST

RoboRAVE International

VEX Robotics

The Robotics Alliance Project (list of robotic competitions)

Resources on Karthik:

The Subtle Secret of Success: Karthik Kanagasabapathy

Competitive Robotics: Bringing Excitement Back to the Canadian Classroom

Simbotics Robotics Team

Book recommendations:

Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, by Anna Funder

The Art of Smart Football, by Chris B. Brown

STEM Hero:

Dr. Woodie Flowers (Co-Founder of FIRST Robotics and considered the grandfather of competitive robotics)

Dr. Woodie Flowers - STEM Hall of Fame Induction 2017

Favorite quote:

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm," by Ralph Waldo Emerson

STEM Rockstar:

Paul Copioli

Paul Copioli and Karthik Kanagasbapathy, VEX Worlds 2018

(photo credit: Makenzie Gruenig, IFI)

Contact information:

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

The volunteer work of this next guest has impacted thousands of lives, including ours. Janne Ackerman is a longtime philanthropist with BEST Robotics, the competition in which we established a team to participate beginning in 2005. In 2008, we met Janne at a Regional Championship and have admired her and her husband Garry since as they have led TX BEST and mentored thousands of students over the years. What is amazing about Janne is that she just keeps giving… having “failed” retirement, she is enjoying the farm life, flying planes, and grandkids. Our listeners will love her energy and the smile that you can hear through the entire interview with this very successful engineer and pilot who has much wisdom to share. She is our first guest from Texas and a STEM Rockstar!

Show Notes

A current resident of Plano, Texas and long-time Raytheon employee (now retired), Janne Ackerman has had a varied career, including assignments in quality assurance, software and systems engineering, and program management.  Other highlights include marrying her high school sweetheart, Garry, getting her pilot’s license, wildlife photography, and collecting aircraft projects for restoration. When she is not busy with work, airplanes, travel, or BEST Robotics, Janne crochets afghans for her family and friends. She also contemplates unusual phenomena, like why all the stray neighborhood cats adopt her or why the cucumbers in her garden stay hidden until they are the size of her left arm.

Texas Instruments

Raytheon

BEST Robotics

Book Recommendation:

Along Came a Spider, by James Patterson

Favorite quote:

“No!  Try not!  Do or do not.  There is no try.” - by Yoda

STEM Rockstar:

Richard Feynman

Contact Information:

[email protected]