German Companies Supporting US Technical Revival

German technology companies are opening their wallets and leading the way in the revitalization of science and engineering programs for youth in the United States. Kudos to them for bringing a bit of their educational culture back to our shores! This past week, I had the privilege of participating directly in one of these programs which will be life-changing for a group of young students.

Phoenix Contact, one such German company with US headquarters in Harrisburg, PA, has been a strong supporter of science and technology education. I was asked to be a judge in their latest endeavor, a competition open to teams from schools across the area to apply Phoenix's latest Nanoline controller platform into a project of the team's choice in the areas of energy efficiency, robotics or home control.

The participation from schools was somewhat disappointing. But in the end, that is their loss. The schools that did participate provided an exceptional learning opportunity for their teams. Among the participants were a middle school team, a high school team, a vocational high school team and a college team.

The wide range in age and experience of the participants provided some challenge for the judges, but we carefully tried to apply criteria in an age-appropriate way. Each of these four teams were monetary winners with the first place team's prize being a week-long trip to Germany where they will display their project in a booth at the Hannover Faire, the largest industrial automation exhibit in the world.

The winning team was a group of ten students from the Cumberland - Perry Vocational Technical School. Their team included students from programs in electronics technology, auto body repair and graphics arts. What an opportunity for this group of students, who would probably find it difficult to gain admittance to a US industrial show, even if it were in their own backyard!

Starting with a golf cart chassis, the group sliced a Dodge car in half and reassembled it in a scaled down version of an electric car, appropriately painted and logoed in Phoenix colors. A biodiesel generator used what may have once been grease for French fries to recharge the batteries. Students could send a cell phone text message to the car to control it battery charging or charging could proceed automaticaly, both under control of the Phoenix Nanoline.

The students sported team-logoed t-shirts, prepared tri-fold color brochures to explain their project, made a brief presentation using PowerPoint, and demonstrated their project in the parking lot. Each student told the audience something that they learned in the course of the two months that they spent working on their project.

Not only was this an example of applying advanced technology to a real problem, it was an outstanding example of the power of a cross-functional team. The team conceived, designed, implemented, started up and marketed their project while managing both the technical details and the team dynamics.

This was an unlikely group to win such a technical competition. They did it with teamwork and tenacity. I am looking forward to visiting the booth to see these kids again in Hannover.

And, US companies and trade show organizers, here is an example of the type of thing that needs to be taking place for students and schools across the country. We need to excite kids about technology well before they turn 16. Sylvania helped to light that spark in me when I was in junior high. My thanks go to Phoenix, Festo, Siemens and other German companies that are trying to spark the imaginations of young people!

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Comments Great experience for the schoolchildren. However, until entry level employment is available in engineering, this is a wasted effort, in my opinion. Posted by: Peter G on March 31, 2010 I think we need to do more contests for problem solving and applications of technology. Thanks for the heavy hitting sponsors and I hope they get something from this effort. This is my first summer in ten I will not be involved with a K-12 activity due to some building conflicts we are having. We have several projects we are working on in our courses and we should share them with interested people. Lets try to get some ideas from our youth shared to expand the possibilities and generate excitement. Posted by: kevin lipsky on April 21, 2010 Great story. These young people can take great satisfaction in thier accomplishments and their participation in such an event will look great on their resumes. Any employer would be richer by hiring any one of them but with the kinds of abilities they are demonstrating one of them may well be another Steve Jobs and able to hire more similarly motivated people. Posted by: John Paterson on April 29, 2010 Post a comment (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) Name: Email Address: URL: Remember personal info? Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style) Type the word 'packaging' (required):