In a recent act of community service, DroneDeploy employees built and donated 100 robots to the Boys and Girls Club of Austin, a non-profit organization that provides after-school programs and activities for children and teenagers.
The organization serves over 10,000 young people in the Austin area and relies heavily on community support to fund its programs.
The event, which was facilitated in partnership with Give to Get, brought together employees from different DroneDeploy departments including engineering, marketing, and sales to problem-solve and aid the local youth organization.
The donation of robots will provide the club with a new and exciting educational tool to engage young people in STEM subjects.
"We wanted to do something special for the community while we were in Austin for a company retreat. Building robots for the Boys and Girls Club was a fun and meaningful way to give back."
Mike Winn, CEO, DroneDeploy
Making a difference with robots
The robots are modular and customizable, and can be adapted for a variety of applications. Students can teach basic movement and obstacle avoidance to the robots, and even code more advanced tasks.
“Building skill sets for problem-solving is incredibly important, and robots and coding are a perfect tool to teach this with,” said Bert Garcia, Director of STEM and YAI at the Boys and Girls Club of Austin.
The DroneDeploy team divided into pairs to build the robots. Since the robots were intended for young students it was important that the small parts and basic functions were already built in. Assembling the robots required careful attention to detail and coordination between team members, but the groups quickly found their rhythm and worked efficiently.
Bringing our company together through giving
The activity was organized by DroneDeploy.org, DroneDeploy’s philanthropic arm. Employees left the event feeling proud of their work and inspired by the impact they had made on the community.
“It was an amazing experience to see our team come together and build something that will benefit the youth of Austin,” said Gayatri Shahane, Data Scientist at DroneDeploy. “We hope that our donation of robots will inspire young people to explore STEM subjects and pursue careers in technology.”
About the Author
Rebecca Lehman
Rebecca finds innovative ways to leverage technology in addressing social and environmental problems. At DroneDeploy she manages both the nonprofit and education programs. She works with nonprofits and social impact organizations to enable the power of mapping and new technology to reach those who need it most. She has a master's degree in Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment.
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