Joint STEM Initiative

Joint STEM Initiative

Produced by QCRA(Queen City Robotics Alliance). This podcast is to facilitate communication between businesses, schools, government, professional societies, faith-based institutions, and other community service organizations to promote career readiness and enhance upward economic mobility. We also work closely with the STEM roundtable group in Charlotte to promote awareness of education supporting programs featured by area businesses, schools, government, professional societies, faith-based institutions, and other community service organizations.You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch the podcast with notes and videos.

Episodes

March 17, 2025 53 mins

What if one program could shape the next generation of engineers, innovators, and leaders? In this episode, we dive into the transformative power of FIRST Robotics through the story of Devika, a high school senior and engineering captain of Team 3506, YETI Robotics.

She shares how a simple invitation to a robotics team in middle school changed her career path, built her confidence, and gave her leadership experience that m...

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In this episode, we talk with Elizabeth and Chris from Society for Information Management (SIM) Charlotte chapter, a professional society of over 5,000 IT leaders.  They share with us their passion and enthusiasm for promoting STEM through SIM’s three avenues of outreach: K-12 STEM/STEAM education programs, educational scholarships, and adult training.

The future business community needs an ample supply of talent and SIM is helping ...

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August 25, 2021 22 mins

Do you know BOSCH, a global Fortune 500 company, has invested in the FIRST Robotics Program for the past 20 years.  We know a company like BOSCH wouldn’t invest in something without a good return.  So, what is the secret that makes BOSCH continue investing in FIRST Robotics Program and growing more teams in BOSCH communities?

To understand this, I got an opportunity to talk with Susan Tippy to figure out what the secret is...

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August 3, 2021 17 mins

The National Society of Black Engineers, NSBE, is a professional society that aims to have 10,000 black Engineers graduate from college by 2025. By engaging the youth as early as 3rd grade in STEM, NSBE helps students and professionals develop the skills needed for a successful professional career.

We learn more about NSBE from Tony Stanford and Quincy Smith, the president and vice president of the NSBE’s Charlotte chapter...

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July 5, 2021 19 mins

Do you know IT jobs are growing fast in North Carolina?  Todd wants to let everyone know, especially if you are young, that getting training in IT would be a great way to get a job placement.  From Todd and Diadre’s viewpoint, the IT career has the advantage that the need exists in every industry plus its flexibility for remote work.  It is the best career as they suggested.

In this episode, we touched on the skillset as well as the...

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June 15, 2021 20 mins

Professional societies have played important roles in various industries.  They have been  a critical force that set up best practices, standards, or certifications.  In today’s ever changing environment, the professional societies remain critical but may need to adopt different approaches with different focuses.  We witness some of them grow while some of them disappear.  One thing for sure, the need for everyone to identify the b...

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May 9, 2021 15 mins

How early should we introduce STEM to students?  At least as early as middle school is Keith’s conclusion and that is our discussion in the episode.  Keith Burgess is a science teacher and a Kenan Fellow with strong passions in STEM.  He also believes that education is a part of solutions to improve students’ economic mobility.

During this episode Keith started from explaining the issues regarding diversity in the STEM field.  He po...

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I have Rob Seymour, a small business owner, as our guest in this episode.  Rob is the founder and CEO of Seymour Advanced Technologies, a business focus on custom automation.  Rob has a successful career as an engineering leader before starting his own company.

In our conversation, we talk about the role of human vs robots.  I love his viewpoint on we should focus on our role, no need to worry about robots taking over our jobs.  Eve...

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March 8, 2021 17 mins

Ever wonder how someone becomes the president of a museum?  The truth is not everyone understands what he/ her wants to be when they were young.  Stephen Sauier took us through his journey from an Anthropology & Biology major to his current role as president working on reopening the Carolinas Aviation Museum. 

During this episode, we also got a chance to discuss the vision of our new museum right here in Charlotte.  Stephen also...

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February 22, 2021 14 mins

Charlotte is growing fast in certain sectors of business that drive up demand in several jobs.  One of the faster growing jobs is software engineer.  Jocelyn Keung is a senior software engineer, but she doesn’t have a computer science degree.  

Jocelyn points out that software is a career with very diverse applications.  She believes one of the most important skills to success in this field is problem solving, not coding like many p...

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February 22, 2021 11 mins

Jocelyn Keung is a young software engineer.  Frustrated about the lack of diverse learning opportunities about women in tech, she decided to create one on her own.  That became the birth of the Fleurix Conference in Charlotte.  That also made her on Charlotte Inno’s “Inno Under 25” list, a collection of bright young tech leaders.

You can also watch this episode by subscribe YouTube Channel:
Joint STEM Initiative

Fleurix Con...

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February 12, 2021 22 mins

The best way of learning 4C (Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration and Communication) is through project based learning.  However, it is not an easy thing to implement in the classroom but we have found a great approach called FIRST robotics.

FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.  Simply put, each robotics team runs like a small business, the team raises funds then designs and b...

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February 5, 2021 20 mins

According to Strada Education Network and Gallup, 51% US audits has second thoughts on their education decisions.  They would change their degree, field of study, or change institution.  This is a waste of resources and our businesses ended up with trouble to fill jobs.

Olympic High School took an different approach that they are making sure students are as career ready as college ready.  We interview Mike Realon about the...

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January 19, 2021 17 mins

The idea of starting this podcast is we believe STEM career is a good way to improve the economics mobility of our community.  It usually come with better income and it may not require a college degree.  We are setting up the journey to explore every about STEM and what STEM professional cares about!

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