The Numbers
Children served: 40
Seniors served: 80
Formerly incarcerated / Justice involved: 18
Percentage BIPOC: 92%
Autonomous Robot Worker
FCS worked with Seattle Nativity School to host a summer robotics program for boys and girls serving 40 students.
Activity Overview
Students built and used the Lego Mindstorm Driving Base as a modular platform for learning the basics of building and programming autonomous robots. Each lesson introduces a new extension to be built onto the Driving Base. These extensions enable it to detect obstacles, move objects, follow lines, and turn by precise angles. The unit ends with a factory-themed challenge that will put your students’ robotics skills to the test! In these activities students also learn the basics of block coding.
Lesson 1: Moves and Turns
An autonomous wheeled robot is a common type of mobile robot. Although they’re not yet common in homes, they’re used extensively in factories and warehouses around the world to automate tasks. The most basic task any wheeled robot should be able to do is to use its motors to make precise and controlled movements.
Lesson 2: Objects and Obstacles
Modular robots are useful because they can be extended and reconfigured to perform a wide range of tasks. Adding sensors enables them to react to their environment so that they can do things like detect obstacles and avoid collisions.
Lesson 3: Grab and Release
Motorized tools can be attached to robots to enable them to perform different tasks. Some are very specialized and optimized for a single purpose, whereas others are more versatile.
Lesson 4: Colors and Lines
Hardcoding the exact movements that a robot has to make isn’t very efficient. Therefore, robots have different guiding systems to help them navigate their environment. One simple yet effective option is to use colored lines on the floor, which a robot can follow using a sensor.
Lesson 5: Angles and Patterns
Gyro Sensors measure changes in rotation to help determine orientation. Wheeled robots can use such sensors to navigate, make precise turns, and keep track of their position.
Lesson 6: The Factory Robot
One of the tasks of autonomous wheeled robots in the LEGO® factory is moving boxes between the different workstations. These fully autonomous robots even find their own way to a charging station when their battery gets low! They perform their tasks efficiently, without bumping into walls, people, or other robots.
FPV Drones
Drones will be everywhere
Activity Overview
Radio controlled drones are extremely popular and you can get them in all shapes and sizes. In recent years, one specific type of drone has seen a sudden rise in popularity: micro quadcopters. They fit in your palm but can be powered by high-RPM brushless motors and a two-cell Li-Po battery, so they have, potentially, tons of power. Combine it with first-person video transmission (FPV) and you have one amazing flying machine. Students will print the major body components of the drone utilizing on site 3D printers.
Lesson 1
What is FPV, what makes a drone fly, where are drones used.
Lesson 2
Different parts of a drone, printing drone
Lesson 3
Time on flight simulator
Lesson 4
Drone build out
Lesson 5
Competition, race drones in an obstacle course around Community Center
FCS Technology Access Training for Formerly Incarcerated
Filipino Community of Seattle's (FCS) Innovative Learning Center is committed to digital equity and the basic human right to internet access. Through our partnership with the Equity in Education Coalition (EEC) and the Fresh Start Professional Services (PS) we have created a workforce development program targeting formerly incarcerated individuals and our underserved community members who are low income or homeless. Through this program, individuals will receive hands on tech training through EEC and Fresh Start PS.
This will enable the students to develop the digital skillset needed to seek stable, living wage employment in the technical sector in.
Communications
Networking
Helpdesk
Network Security (entry-level)
Network Admin
We know that stable employment is one of the biggest factors in reducing recidivism, but formerly incarcerated job seekers, particularly those who are older, are often hindered from finding employment by social stigma, unstable housing, unreliable transportation, untreated mental health, and the requirements of community custody, parole, or treatment. Fresh Start PS combines lived experience with expertise in navigating these re-entry challenges. This support is a necessary complement to skills training for successful re-entry.
The collaboration between EEC, FCS Innovative Learning Center, and Fresh Start PS, addresses the combined needs of updated hard skills and social support for the formerly incarcerated by providing an eight-week training that consists of soft skills, such as emotional regulation, hard skills, such as understanding broadband, and a head start into the technical job market in the form of a yearlong, paid internship.
Interns will develop, upgrade, and build eight community networks in Washington State. This will prepare them to succeed in Washington’s high tech labor market. Together, these combined elements ensure that formerly incarcerated individuals have a fair chance of accessing the technology industry. When we create the conditions for success, with training, internships, and equitable opportunity, Washington’s formerly incarcerated population can not only survive but thrive.
Broadband Engineer Internship
August 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023
Industry certification in CompTIA A+, Network +, and Security +
Design or upgrade eight community broadband sites
Add 350 households to community broadband
Maintain and capacity improvements of site
Digital Navigation
Community Outreach
