Qualcomm’s Susie Armstrong Talks Thinkabit Labs, STEM, and Inspiring the Next Generation
Since it began, Qualcomm® Thinkabit Lab™ has exposed more than 12,000 students, teachers and parents to hands-on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) activities and career exploration discussions that will prepare them for 21st-century jobs. The lab moved beyond its San Diego roots (the first Thinkabit Lab debuted at Qualcomm headquarters in 2014) last year, with the opening of a lab at Virginia Tech University. Now, the program takes another step toward its goal: to create more labs in schools locally, nationally, and even globally. Today marks the launch of the Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab Toolkit, a set of resources that school districts, libraries, universities, and businesses can use to create their own Thinkabit Lab-inspired sites, wherever they are.
The Thinkabit Lab Toolkit, which is free, is based on the “signature activities” offered at the Thinkabit Lab headquarters in San Diego. These activities include Thinkabit Lab’s original robo-crafting projects, Qualcomm World of Work career exploration activities, and projects that focus on the Internet of Things and 5G. And the relationship doesn’t end there — Qualcomm will continue to collaborate with participants, providing guidance and sharing best practices as they create their makerspaces where students can invent, design, and build.
To understand more about Thinkabit Lab’s “next step,” we spoke with engineer extraordinaire and fierce STEM advocate Susie Armstrong, who serves as the senior vice president of engineering at Qualcomm Inc. and lead of the Thinkabit Lab.
