This continues a new category of posts: Guest columns where friends and readers share how technology is reshaping their hobby – fishing, basket weaving, rugby – whatever.
This time it is Charlie Bess,
one of the smartest fellows at EDS (now part of HP). In fact, they call him a
Fellow :)
His hobby is helping our youth get excited about science and engineering.
“Vinnie asked about how technology is changing leisure and I thought I’d take it a bit further into the intersection of leisure and community services. I grew up before the personal computer came on the scene. I had an interest in electronics and had a Ham radio license by the 6th grade. Growing up on a farm, a solitary activity like this allowed me to connect with the rest of the world and create a lifelong passion for technical discovery.
Now to quench that thirst for technology, I participate in the FIRST competitions as a judge and help with the kickoff of the North Texas activities. Through this effort, I’ve seen the passion and creativity of the participants developing their relationships with others and delivering on team goals – gracious professionalism. They’re developing skills they’ll use for the rest of their life, even if they do not go into engineering.
Recently I was a judge for the FIRST Lego League
competition in Dallas (pictured to the left). A pair of 7th grade competitors described how
they spent most of the previous summer learning new development tools and
tackling projects so they would be ready for the winter competition. This is the
same kind of dedication and goal setting that we expect in the sports, but
rarely see at this level dealing with technology.
Next we’ll have the First Robotics Competition (aimed at high school age teams) in mid March at SMU. This event will involve almost 50 teams from at least 2 countries and 5 states. Hopefully I’ll still be able to hear afterwards, since screaming seems to be part of the whole experience. “
Update: Charlie's note from recent FRC competition
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