David Gonzalez
Staff Writer
Broward College’s commitment to the advancement of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) related education is now on display in a fully mobile capacity. Donning state-of-the art bells and whistles, the iSTEM mobile center is a thoroughly equipped laboratory featuring the latest in high technology. From virtual reality to robotics, its purpose is to bring much needed exposure of applied sciences to all who have an interest.
The iSTEM center is part of the college’s Project ACCESS (Accelerated College Completion by Engaging Students in STEM) initiative. The program is comprised of several overlapping constituents complimenting each other, and students do not need to be majoring in a STEM related field to take advantage of the resources.
The public had an opportunity to explore the mobile lab at Broward College’s North campus in early February. Russell Pierre, who works with Project ACCESS, was aboard to guide the curious crowd. “The point of the bus is to go to high schools and get students interested in STEM and recruit for Broward College… we just show them what we have to offer and what they can study here,” Pierre said as busy students stood near by tinkering. “In these stations we show what we have: artificial intelligence, with our NAO robots, or extended reality with our VR/XR/AR; and then our autonomous vehicles by LEGO… This is where students would be doing their work.”
The NAO (pronounced now) is a fully programmable, autonomous, bipedal, humanoid and somewhat jovial looking robot developed by Aldebaran Robotics, a French robotics company. It offers computer science majors (and those who just think robots are cool) the chance to design their own protocols and put them to work.
When onsite at various high schools, Pierre acts as an assistant, demonstrating the bus’s capabilities. “I introduce the students to this stuff to get them interested,” he remarks at the autonomous vehicles station. Here, a laptop is interfaced with a two-wheeled vehicle built from the iconic blocks. “We have the LEGO SPIKE. This is the newest version that LEGO has created for their robotics and coding. With the old models, we wouldn’t have set the movement motors, it would just automatically move when we have ‘move forward’ set. This one is a little more specific, we set the movement motors to what is plugged in, and we have it move forward,” and with the click of a button, the car dutifully obeys the command input by Pierre and goes along its way. The SPIKE can be programmed to its surroundings as well, so adventurous coders can map its route to their own specifications.
The iSTEM mobile center was built to inspire the desire to become educated while being educated, which it accomplishes through an inherent appeal to childlike whimsy, as seen on the countenance of the NAO robot. But STEM related endeavors are driving our global economy at an ever-increasing rate, making it of paramount importance for educators to continue to find ways to enhance interest in the various fields.
Robert Diaz, Senior Director of HSI Title III, Project ACCESS, leads Broward College’s designated team of faculty and students in this endeavor. “This is the vehicle that drives progress. This is the vehicle that connects and transports students from one point to another,” Diaz said emphatically. “There is a lot of work that is involved with creating bridges and connecting schools, whether it’s through agreements or degrees or curriculum, but there needs to be some mechanism that the students ride in.”
Hidden amid the wonder of the bus’s multitude of gadgetry, there is a seriousness to the business at hand, and the underpinning imperative is clear. “This iSTEM center works in several ways; it supports training and development, careers, education, and access. It is just a matter of how you want to use the vehicle, it’s a tool.”
Versatile by nature, the bus allows the operators to display a wide spectrum of applied sciences by way of its equipment. “This also lets us do things like, if we wanted to create something to understand the sciences [of it], we bring a 3D printer that prints with metals, we bring someone who is studying metallurgy to try and understand how to calculate how wide of a flute does the 3D printer need to make things with metal, understanding physics. This is what lets us do any of that. This bus turns into a planetarium if we want it to, it turns into a virtual reality lab, it turns into computer hardware and networking training center. It literally could be turned into a job-readiness [site] in the drop of a dime, because the way it was designed allows it to dress up to serve anyone.”
In addition to the mobile iSTEM center bus, students can visit the MakerSpace rooms at each of Broward College’s campuses to explore the technologies currently being pursued by Project ACCESS.
