Alvarez Spark Innovation Award recipient William Bai founded the nonprofit startup RoboRecovery to create low-cost and adaptable robotics programs for New Orleans students. William is an undergraduate junior, Class of 2024, majoring in Cell & Molecular Biology with minors in Philosophy and Strategy, Leadership, and Analytics (SLAM).

 

Every idea the Taylor Center funds has a story behind it. A story illuminating what a person cares about, how she wrestles with the inequities of the world, and how she responds to calls for change.

 

Here, I want to tell you my story behind RoboRecovery. It’s a story about my inspiration for RoboRecovery, the idea that RoboRecovery has blossomed into, the impact that RoboRecovery has had on our community, and the innovation that lies ahead. It’s a story that was enabled by and continues to grow through the Taylor Center’s generosity.

The Inspiration

I started RoboRecovery in February 2021 after coming to three realizations.

First, across the nation, schools and families abandon or discard perfectly-usable educational resources—LEGO robotics kits. These kits were originally designed for the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) robotics competition, which in their 2019-2020 season engaged over half a million middle-school students in hands-on science and engineering enrichment. But they also have been used in after-school programs and classrooms across the nation. While these kits are reusable and durable, they are often neglected or thrown away when FLL teams disband. Considering that each of these kits retails for $300-$600 each, millions of dollars’ worth of perfectly good robotics kits—which could be repurposed to educate thousands more students—are lost annually.

Second, a lack of after-school program investment prevents many Louisiana students from accessing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) enrichment opportunities outside the classroom. While 75% of Louisiana parents believe that after-school programs help children develop skills and interest in STEM, high demand means there is still a lack of after-school programs. For every child in a Louisiana after-school program, four are waiting to get in. Such access issues slash a child’s chances to pursue science and engineering outside of class and in their future careers, which is reflected in statewide education statistics. While 51% of Louisiana students who took the ACT express interest in STEM fields, only 16% of these students meet benchmarks for college STEM coursework.

Third, socioeconomic disparities tie closely to educational disparities. In the case of LEGO Mindstorms robotics, a classroom set of kits can cost tens of thousands of dollars, putting LEGO robotics far out of reach for under-resourced communities. This phenomenon is evident in New Orleans, where the poverty rate is over twice the national average. As of 2019, only 17 out of 133 middle schools in the NOLA area have FIRST LEGO League (FLL) competition robotics teams. Of those teams, sixteen are either run by private schools or based in historically affluent parts of NOLA, including the Garden District and Uptown. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this inequality, causing learning loss across the country but especially for socioeconomically-disadvantaged students. Despite Louisiana’s projected surge in job opportunities in STEM fields, for these disadvantaged New Orleans students, socioeconomic marginalization continues to compound into STEM education marginalization. Widened educational disparities underscore the need for increased support for students as they return to the physical classroom.

While some saw these as problems, between the lines I saw solutions.

 

The Idea

RoboRecovery was founded on a vision of an equitable future for STEM education, where all youth have access to hands-on opportunities in STEM and can become future leaders in STEM. Our mission is to catalyze pathways into STEM careers for underserved students by increasing access to STEM enrichment opportunities, specifically in robotics.

We collect used robotics kits from across the nation, recovering them from donors who otherwise would have tossed them into dusty closets or the trash (hence the name RoboRecovery). We refurbish these kits and use them to start free after-school robotics programs in New Orleans. Our after-school programs are all-inclusive bundles. We realize that robotics is tough (but rewarding) to learn, which may discourage students and teachers from starting. We not only provide all of the equipment for a robotics program, but also offer online tutorial videos for students and in-person program mentorship by trained Tulane students.

Additionally, we loan robotics kits free of charge to schools and organizations interested in trying out robotics. The cost of robotics kits makes it a tough entry barrier for many schools. Through our loan program, we erase this entry barrier, enabling others to try robotics in their communities before investing in the associated equipment.

 

Our model allows us to engage more than just the local community. Our Tulane student mentors, who hail from all across the US, gain new perspectives when stepping outside the privileged bubble of Uptown New Orleans to work with local K-12 students. Having benefited from after-school programming in their youth, they enable similar enrichment opportunities for others. Our donors, who mail robotics kits from locations ranging from California to New Hampshire, who are high schoolers all the way to retirees, know that what once took up closet space now works towards inspiring young New Orleanians about STEM fields.

 

The Impact

Over the last year, RoboRecovery piloted after-school robotics programs in three schools and one after-school organization. We have individually mentored over 50 local students who make up a diverse cohort. 93% of our students identify as African American or Hispanic, groups that are disproportionately underrepresented in STEM-related careers. 70% of our students are on free and reduced lunch, suggesting that RoboRecovery provides them with enrichment opportunities outside of their families’ financial reach.

At the beginning of our programs, we give students a survey evaluating their confidence in key science and engineering skills. We give them the same survey at the end of our programs, comparing the results before and after. Over all locations we have worked at, we have achieved the following results.

• 20% increase in students’ reported ability to explain engineering and coding concepts
• 12% increase in students’ reported interest in attending college.
• 83% increase in confidence in computer coding abilities
• 40% increase in confidence for explaining robots and their real-world applications
• 61% increase in ability to explain the engineering design process
• 34% increase in confidence in becoming a future engineer

The Innovation

Our story is just getting started. Even with successful afterschool programs, RoboRecovery has so much room for growth, and we realize we can do so much more for the New Orleans community.

RoboRecovery teaches students about the engineering design process—a cycle of ideation, testing, and iteration that helps engineers make better solutions. RoboRecovery takes a similar approach to our program development. We brainstorm ideas, test them on a small scale, evaluate them, and decide whether to continue investing in them or not. This mindset brought us to our current stage, and it is what will take us to the next level.

This year, we have several ideas to test and evaluate. Here are just a few:

1. In School Need to Try Robotics (INTRO). There are barriers to robotics programs outside of financial cost. One is that many schools may not even know about after-school robotics programs, and even if they do, their teachers may be intimidated by the requirements and scope of starting a program. INTRO will provide New Orleans math and science teachers the equipment and instructions to set up a simplified 1-2 hour robotics class activities during the school day. The equipment is loaned for free to schools, and teachers have no commitment beyond the class robotics activity. RoboRecovery hopes that through INTRO, teachers will see how feasible and engaging a robotics program would be, possibly leading to the launch of new after-school robotics programs.
2. Weekend Programs in Public Libraries. Reaching as many New Orleans youth as we can means going further than school grounds. One way to do so is partnering with local libraries to host weekend robotics exhibitions. These would consist of robotics demonstrations for children to interact with as well as RoboRecovery team members distributing informational flyers to parents. By having parents physically see the robots and their children playing with the robots, we may garner more parent support.
3. Teacher Professional Development (PD) workshops: Through teacher PDs, which teachers will be given stipends to complete, we will incentivize school staff to learn robotics and pilot robotics programs in their communities. Our incentives will be tiered, i.e., teachers can accumulate more stipends for each step they take towards building out robotics education in their community. Steps may include completing the teacher PD, passing a knowledge test, recruiting a certain number of students to their program, retaining students in their program, etc.

I can guarantee you that at least one of these ideas will flop. Maybe even all three. That’s not the point though. We envision a more equitable future for youth education and enrichment, and we are taking the steps to make it happen. We realize that traversing off the beaten path carries its challenges. But we take on these risks to educate, if it means the smile of students when their robots work, if it means that some decide to pursue science and engineering careers, if it means that they can explain how robots like self-driving cars work. It is the essence of our story, where it continues to write new chapters every day.