The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), an association dedicated to the promotion and economic advancement of Georgia’s technology industry,has named AutomationDirect as a finalist in the Corporate Outreach category for its 2014 STEM Education Awards.
Winners in all eight categories of the competition were to be officially honored at The 3rd Annual STEM Education Awards event held in Savannah, Ga. late September.
Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) occupations are expected to increase in Georgia by more than 22,000 during the current decade,” said Tino Mantella, president & CEO of TAG. “The finalists of this year’s STEM Education Awards are helping to prepare the tech-ready workforce needed to fill these jobs, and we applaud them for standing out as leaders in Georgia’s educational community.”
AutomationDirect has funded local competition robotics teams in Forsyth County and surrounding school systems (the “Forsyth Alliance”) for the past nine years. Funding is primarily used to provide exciting STEM activities to all students in Forsyth County by ensuring there is at least one competition robotics team in every school, and tournaments to compete in, said Mantella. Some schools now have over a dozen teams in multiple programs.
Forsyth Alliance teams participate in local, state, national and world competitions, including FIRST Lego League, FIRST Robotics, VEX, VEX IQ, BEST, Sea Perch and MATE. “We have found there is no better way to get a young mind excited about STEM than to get them involved in a competition robotics program,” says Rick Folea, senior training developer at AutomationDirect. “The Alliance now supports over 100 teams in Forsyth County. The excitement of competition drives their desire to learn in the classroom.”
The rapid growth of this program and enrollment in STEM programs in the schools and creation of STEM academies in the schools is a testament to the importance and success of this initiative, said Michael Robertson, executive director of TAG Education Collaborative.
“It is exciting to see the progress we are making with STEM education in Georgia. The increase in nominations each year and the quality of the nominations made it difficult for our judges,” added Robertson.
>> For more information about TAG and the 3rd Annual STEM Education Awards or to attend the event, click here
