Posted: 09/02/2008
Technical Workforce Development Through Robotics: A Conversation With Dr. George Blanks
The US workforce currently has a two million person gap in workers qualified for technical positions, putting the country at a competitive advantage. What’s to be done? In this Q&A session with Robotics Trends’ contributing editor John Desmond, Dr. George Blanks, Director of K-12 Engineering Outreach for the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering at Auburn University, believes that robotics in the form of the Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology (BEST) program, is a step in the right direction.
Dr. George Blanks is Director of K-12 Engineering Outreach for the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering at Auburn University. This position is the only one of its kind at any engineering school in Alabama. Representing the College of Engineering, Blanks co-directs Auburn’s BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) Robotics Program with the College of Sciences and Mathematics and directs outreach efforts to inspire and excite K-12 students to pursue careers in engineering. The BEST Robotics Competition at Auburn includes a local competition (Alabama BEST) for schools in Central Alabama, a competition in Decatur, Alabama (Tennessee Valley BEST) and South’s BEST Regional Robotics Championship, which brings 50 teams and 2500 supporters from BEST competition sites in 14 states.
Dr. Blanks is also Vice-President of the Board of Directors of BEST Robotics, Inc., a non-profit, all-volunteer organization based in Dallas. He is currently serving on the central committee of the I-85 Corridor Alliance, an organization whose mission is to improve economic, workforce, and community development in the counties along I-85 from Montgomery to the Georgia state line. He recently spent some time discussing his work with Robotics Trends Contributing Editor John P. Desmond ().
John Desmond (JD): Can you comment on science and math trends in K-12 public education in the U.S.?
George Blanks (GB): If you Googled ‘technological literacy’, you would see a ton of stuff. But for me an important event occurred three years ago, at the national Governor’s Conference on Math and Science Education where Microsoft’s CEO, Bill Gates, the keynote speaker. Our governor (in Alabama) returned from that event deeply disturbed by what he had heard, and was determined to do something about it. Bill Gates basically said you might as well throw out the American high school and start over. They are broken. The American educational system does not work. The US has been like an ostrich with its head in the sand, missing what’s going on in the world as China, the European Union and India have surpassed us in terms of student preparedness for future industry jobs. Whereas we were once number one in virtually everything relating to technology, science and education years ago, since that time there has been a steady decline, reaching a crisis level about five or six years ago. Since that time, I have gotten involved with workforce development initiatives.
The reason we began robotics competitions was simply to get kids interested and excited about engineering, science and applied math. Industry is interested in preparedness, in a future work force. Our education system has failed in many respects, and I can only speak for Alabama. We are actually doing something about it now. In Alabama, we are number one in teenage pregnancy and are usually at the bottom of the barrel for everything else. But about three or four years ago, we started the Alabama Math and Science Technology Initiative (AMSTI), which is now a model program around the country. The goal is to get student scores in math and science to a level where they are competitive, and we are showing remarkable progress. The only critical issue is that it has come so late; we are so far behind the rest of the world, I do not know if we will be able to catch up. To date, I have not seen anything in the literature that says we are making progress compared to other countries.
JD: Can you describe the BEST Robotics Program?
GB: The BEST Robotics Program was started in 1993 in Dallas by two engineers with Texas Instruments. For the first year, two local schools participated; in the second year, 14 schools participated. This past fall, we had 60 schools and 11,000 students participating, so it has grown considerably. They started BEST to give kids something to do in engineering that was fun. Companies have become interested in the program because it is getting kids interested in engineering and science as it applies to work.
When we got involved in 2001, there were four universities involved. Now there are 24. My associates here at Auburn and I have worked hard over seven years to recruit these other universities, and we are attracting them with the idea that they can be a part of the solution by bringing this program to their campus. It is an alliance between K-12 schools, engineering schools and industry. My prior experience has been that in engineering education, industry has been out there doing its own thing, and they are on the receiving end of the students the colleges and universities graduate. Likewise, the colleges take the best students they can get from K-12 public education.
Engineering schools typically lose 50% of first year engineering or pre-engineering students. Unfortunately, kids coming into college have been told they would make good engineers, but they are not ready for the math and science requirements in many cases. Most of them do not know what engineers do.
Robotics is built on a practical application of physics and math. There is calculus and algebra involved. It is a hands-on engineering experience. They learn the engineering design process, which every college engineering student learns. So we have middle school and high school students practicing real engineering work while they are still in school. We believe that if we can reach kids in middle school and give them a good foundation in algebra 1 and 2, calculus and physics, they are more likely to be prepared to go to an engineering school.
A lot of the literature says you cannot start early enough. Many people have come to the conclusion that there is no quick fix for this, that this is a long-term investment. It’s going to take some time to prepare the future workforce.
Alabama is a rural state. We have clusters of population in Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile, but in between there are many small towns. Meanwhile, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes, Hyundai and KIA are about to open plants there, and that’s just the auto industry. There are many manufacturers, but they are beginning to realize that there is not enough technologically literate workers to go around. They have tapped all the expertise. These companies will have to hire literate, capable, competitive workers from outside the state, including in the robotics field.
There are not many people in Alabama with a background in robotics. We had a company based in Detroit working down here for Mercedes Benz, trying to find a professional workforce for robotics. They had to hire people in Detroit to come down to Alabama to work.
So we started doing BEST as a K-12 workforce development program. The idea is to funnel students into two-year colleges. For those not going into engineering schools, the two year technology program can prepare them to go straight into the workforce. We have some companies that hire these kids right out of high school. They might not be college material, but they make good workers. We also prepare students for four-year colleges. I have had to beat on a lot of doors to get attention, and we now have the attention of some folks high up in state government and education working with us. BEST has a great reputation. Folks are picking up that it is very effective at teaching kids to use technology. Still I often feel like I am a voice in the wilderness down here.
JD: What is the gap between the supply of engineers and what the economy requires.
GB: The gap is about two million qualified individuals. The gap is being created by retirements. Some 85% of the manufacturing workforce is eligible to retire now. Companies are now shifting engineers from job site to job site to make up for the loss. Companies are also hiring away engineers from other firms. It is very competitive. When I was growing up, it was common for a person to work for a company all his life. Today, you have folks jumping ship all the time when they get the next best offer.
In Alabama we have an additional problem. Once students get a degree from Auburn or another a prestigious engineering school, they tend to leave the state. In the southeast central part of the state, close to Georgia, there was once a heavy textile industry. When NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement) came in, the textile industry jobs got shipped to Mexico and overseas, and the mills shut down. So now there are no textile industries here, but there are all these people that need jobs. When KIA came in, they advertised for 3,000 jobs and had 45,000 apply. But the former textile workers are short on technical expertise. So we are trying to push BEST into the rural parts of the state, so students will go to work in these industries and stay here. As a result, we have gotten the attention of the economic development entities of the state, and they are all interested in improving K-12 public education.
At the start of the 20th century, if you could not read, your chances of being successful were limited. Now, if you don’t have a good handle on technology, you are in the same position. Technology is the answer to nearly everything in education.
John P Desmond is a contributing editor to Robotics Trends. He can be reached at:
