ABINGTON, Pa. — A robot cat and an autonomous vehicle are Joe Oakes' secret weapons. Last week's situation called for the Penn State Abington information sciences and technology faculty member to use them on 100 ninth-graders. Oakes' mission? Grab their attention so he could urge them to explore careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Mission: Accomplished.
Oakes visited the teens at an Abington Junior High School career forum.
"It's a scary thing making a career choice," he said, after explaining that his students re-engineered that cat to respond to commands and built the autonomous vehicle. "Get exposure to different careers. I went to diesel mechanic school in high school and I hated it. Don't think you can't make a change."