Members of Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center's (MARMC) Engineering Department served as judges for the Science, Technology Engineering, and Math (STEM) Robotics Challenge held at the Virginia Beach Convention Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia, June 9.

The program, which involves over 1,000 students from elementary to high school, helps to 'meet the critical need of developing a skilled, professional STEM workforce to secure America's economic future.'

"We are fortunate to get a lot of community support for this event each year," said Stephanie Sutton, STEM grant specialist for Virginia Beach Public Schools. "There are business professionals from the Virginia Beach Department of Teaching and Learning, military commands, and individuals from organizations geared toward STEM in the Hampton Roads area that come out to serve as judges and mentors for the students involved in the program."

This year's theme, 'Baxter on the Boardwalk' involved teams of students using the engineering design process to build robots capable of placing miniature Baxters in either a manufacturing or a servicing space on a Monopoly-style board.

Baxter is a robot constructed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that was lent, this year, to Virginia Beach's Advanced Technology Center for students to use as a template when learning programming and the robotics design process.

"When I saw that MARMC was asking for volunteers, I wanted to get involved and give back to the community," said MARMC Submarine Electronics Branch Manager Kevin Chugg. "Both of my kids attended the Advanced Technology Center when they were still in school, and my daughter became an engineer and my son is now a software engineer. This event today is a great step in supporting these kids in making a career in the sciences."

Individuals from MARMC's Submarine Programs and Systems Division and MARMC's Electronic Warfare Branch were also on hand to evaluate student's e-portfolio submissions prior to the competition, which used the engineering design process to chronicle the development of each student's robot.

"One of the big things the students are learning today is to have a good prototype," said Cryptologic Technician (Technical) 1st Class Cedric Myles, who works in MARMC's Electronics Warfare Branch. "If you have a well-designed prototype it will go a long way in helping your final robot perform its task."

This is the second consecutive year that MARMC has volunteered time to support the STEM Robotics Challenge.

"This sort of program gives students a better grasp on what it is to be a technician, and they can apply these skills later in life," said Myles. "This can help gear them toward the engineering field and even help them with using modern technology in their daily lives."

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