Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Our Cedar Point ES Tech Lab partner in VT News


Photos and video: Principal, teacher inspired by Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab create their own
Photos and video: Principal, teacher inspired by Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab create their own
 Cedar Point Elementary School is one of the first schools in Virginia to get its own version of the Thinkabit Lab. More and more labs like Cedar Point’s have popped up all over the Mid-Atlantic, with plans of opening as far as New York.   Read More 

Monday, November 20, 2017

Hour(s) of Code

One of the best discoveries among our school partners is that visiting school groups get a solid two hours or more of coding experience in an Arduino-based C++ language similar very similar to the programming language supporting their cell phones and school robots, and many, many other things in our daily lives. Best of all, they apply their program to real, moving circuits, sensors and/or actuators.  Then we provide loaner kits for teachers to extend learning back at their schools.





Monday, November 13, 2017

Dean Watford talks about college applications with our HS Interns


Dr. Bev Watford spent the day in the Lab today and then spent the last part of the afternoon talking with our 14 high school interns.

Dr. Watford is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering, and her office is responsible for all matters pertaining to undergraduate students. This includes activities related to recruitment, matriculation and graduation of students. Curriculum and accreditation issues are also within the scope of academic affairs. 

Dr. Watford is also the Director of the Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity and Director of the Ware Lab.  She oversees the overall Thinkabit Lab Project and helps us navigate university procedures in Blacksburg.


Friday, November 10, 2017

Dean Blieszner's Roundtable visit to the Thinkabit Lab

Dr. Rosemary Blieszner is the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences and is an Alumni Distinguished Professor of Human Development.

Her Dean's Roundtable was held in Northern Virginia on November 9 and 10.  On Friday afternoon, her group visited the Lab to see and understand how the Thinkabit Lab provides a school and community connection to Virginia Tech's STEM education programs, the computer science and engineering foundations for IoT and Smart Cities initiatives, and our special emphasis on providing equity in opportunities and outreach to diverse thinkers.


Wednesday, November 8, 2017

First group of 5th graders visit Harrisonburg Labs today

While the Harrisonburg Labs have been serving MS school students both of the city's middle schools since summer, today is the first day Harrisonburg's STEM leader, Amy Sabarre will have elementary students visit the Lab as an introduction to their future middle school STEM courses next year.


Monday, November 6, 2017

John Kaufhold at NVTC Titan's Breakfast

Deep Learning: Promise and Pitfalls - John Kaufhold to speak at Northern Virginia Technology TITANS Event

November 2, 2017
Hear how deep learning is taking AI to the next level on Jan. 31, 2018. 

Join NVTC, In-Q-Tel and your technology business colleagues on January 31, 2018 for a Titans event on the promises and pitfalls of deep learning, featuring Melvin Greer, chief data officer at Intel, and John Kaufhold, CEO of Deep Learning Analytics.Panelists will discuss how deep learning is harnessing massive datasets and advances in computing hardware and algorithms to solve today's complicated challenges in defense, healthcare, infrastructure, the environment, and more.

Some of the cutting-edge innovations being powered by deep learning today include autonomous vehicles, precision medicine, and facial and speech recognition. The discussion will be moderated by Ravi Pappu, Chief Architect of In-Q-Tel.

Location:
The Ritz-Carlton,
Tysons Corner
1700 Tysons Blvd.
McLean, VA

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Maryland STEM Career Fair at Morgan State

From a great day at Morgan State. Technical career exploration, and programming traffic lights, servo motors, state trooper lights, and holiday lights with just over 300 student visitors. Best of all were the like-minded educators who stopped by to brainstorm.