Robotics for the pipeline Donald McCoy is the MPIT program manager focusing on the external pipeline. He is also an EE whose regular career track is project management in hardware networking. His main role at the office is to mastermind the robotics modules and other material for use in IBM's Technology Careers Workshops for K-12 kids. Targeted at minority-serving schools across the U.S., this was a really stupendous task. Brown and her team decided to address it by preparing an inventory of captivating hands-on presentation modules that IBM volunteers throughout the country could take out to their local schools.
Kids work with a robotics kit made available for school presentations.
To launch this volunteer-based program, the project office worked with IBM's diversity network groups. For example, when they decided to organize a pilot workshop for volunteers in the Newburgh, NY area, the office e-mailed the local diversity leaders for distribution to their members, then explained further via conference calls. Finally, a staffer went up to Newburgh to help the local talent put on the workshop. The first robotics presentations by volunteers were delivered last spring in connection with Engineers Week 2000. They continued on through the year.