Everyone of a certain age reading this blog remembers the famous dialogue between Benjamin (Dustin Hofffman) and Mr. McGuire in the 1967 hit movie “The Graduate.” It goes like this:
Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.
Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?
Now in 2014, substitute the word “Robotics” for “Plastics” and you’ve got the right context to proceed.
I have just attended the “Robotics Rock Star Breakfast” hosted by the Bainbridge Schools Foundation (BSF) as part of its Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) outreach program. Over the past few years, BFA has independently dedicated $600,000 to fund STEM programming in our bucolic island’s schools. It’s resulted in my son’s high school robotics team, Spartonics 4915 being invited to the World Championship in St. Louis, MO April 23-26 (details here). The breakfast itself featured Paulo Younse from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena CA (shown center in the picture with my son Geoffrey and West Sound Technology Professionals leaders Charles and Dona Keating and a real NASA robot). The hour-long speech (and breakfast) was a home run, covering his career and space robotics with a view of the current Mars mission.
The broader context I want to provide is this. My son Geoff is a STEM kid and is keen on robotics and other related fields. He has shown little interest in repeating my career as a client/server network engineer. Good! Why? Because kids today will have a very different career than current SMB IT Pros. Not only will their work environment be more global, it’ll be underwater and extraterrestrial. Let’s face it – there is only so much more demand for installing severs customers don’t want moving forward. But robotics is an emerging field that I suspect will carry my son his entire career in ways we can’t imagine beyond space missions and underwater wreckage recovery.
If you are interested in doing the right thing by your kids and encouraging them to spread their wings, there is a simple way, as an SMB Nation member, to participate in the new-new world of robotics and other technologies. Get involved with the Microsoft Voices for Innovation (it’ll have a big role at the July 2014 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington DC) and its STEM efforts. Tell ‘em Harry sent ya!
So I end with one word for the future geeks: ROBOTICS!
