VMware Corporate STEM Charity Event in Palo Alto CA
A Corporate STEM Charity Event at VMware headquarters in Palo Alto was a spectacular success with all sides of the equation having an inspiring evening, and an almost infinite amount of fun. VMware donated $5,000 towards the purchase of much needed robotics equipment for Cal Middle School, and the students attended an amazing team building event where they built robots with VMware employees and then battled robots!
35 students and 35 teams from VMware were matched up, each team with one robotics student (and aspiring future tech employee.) The teams were comprised of a random mix of 3-5 VMware employees and 1 student.
The students were from Cal Middle School in Sacramento and were about 50/50 boys and girls. Equal participation was an emphasis and focus VMware wanted to encourage in the robotics club or school they partnered with. TeamWorx found a robot club to partner with VMware that is located in a title one school, and that also had strong equality in its gender participation.
Each of the 35 VMware/student teams utilized the strengths of students and adults to build the robots as fast as possible, and hopefully faster than the other teams. Team #34 “Team Fetros“ named after their student, won the build competition with an impressive time of 36:00 minutes even.
Most of the 35 teams finished building the robot in under 50 minutes, which is great considering the smaller team sizes. This allowed us to have over a dozen melee battle rounds in all, including more than six with over 30 robots! Thirty robots fighting at the same time is an awe inspiring sight especially considering its not something you see anywhere else! The small team sizes allowed everyone multiple times to battle, especially the students – who were the true stars of the evening!
A huge thank you to all of the parent volunteers and chaperones from Cal Middle School who traveled from Sacramento and were extremely helpful at the event. A very special thank you to Maria and Mr. Bostic from Cal Middle School who rallied 35 actual teenage middle school students to spend their day off traveling to an unknown place for a nebulous robot battle what? This is a sign of truly great leadership and an obvious commitment from students serious about robotics!
A gigantic thank you to VMware for investing in a very special group of young robot lovers serious about learning STEM related material and applying it in their free time!
VMware’s sponsorship of the event made everything possible, and the graciousness of their employees made everyone feel welcome.
STEM Robot Team Building
