About Us
We are from Northern California and were very interested in hands-on making and building from an early age. Our story is really about learning, teaching and now, scaling to as many communities as possible.
Back in third grade, Noah built a really challenging Lego project, combined with an open source software program to automatically solve a Rubik’s Cube.
After some friends showed interest, we started helping others to learn the same skills, through after-school programs and later expanding to summer camps.
Then we started learning about robotics and competing. Together, our team was the youngest team ever to win a major Northern California regional competition sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
As we were evangelizing STEM education at various Maker Faires, we met students from so many different schools across California. We were surprised, and a bit saddened, to learn that so many California communities, even those just minutes from our home in places like Oakland, Richmond and Pittsburg, were unable to provide these types of programs.
We had also been learning how to code software, and helped local schools create voice AI applications using the Zammo.ai platform. This uses many different Microsoft AI services, including ChatGPT, Azure OpenAI Service and Cognitive Search.
After some friends showed interest, we started helping That gave us the idea of having the classes remotely. Then we realized that we could reduce costs even more using video-based instruction. This innovation, plus generous supporters, enable CalSTEM.org to offer video-based instruction for both Robotics and AI Software at zero cost. to learn the same skills, through after-school programs and later expanding to summer camps.
That seemed really unfair, so we wanted to understand the problem better. We learned that live, in person instruction with expert instructors is too expensive, or just unavailable, for many communities. While we were thinking about how to overcome those obstacles, the COVID school closures happened—and all instruction went remote for a while.
We were grateful to have our mission and success be recognized by California Superintendent of Public Schools Tony Thurmond. He encouraged his staff to help CalSTEM.org to help as many California schools as possible to start STEM Programs.
The following year we went back to the STEM symposium and this time presented to teachers in a breakout session. We received a lot of important feedback and also many sign-ups.
Ever since the STEM symposium we have been following up with teachers and visiting their classrooms to see how the video based training works in action.
CalSTEM was a hit at many schools and we received a lot of useful feedback.