022 Engineering Education: From FANUC America to Competitive Robotics, with Dan Mantz

Today’s guest is an executive leader with 25 years of experience as an engineer and innovator who shifted from solving complex robotics programs at FANUC America to encouraging young people to solve complex robotics programs at the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation.  The students compete in VEX robotics competitions across the globe, and Dan’s leadership has promoted growth and development of a program that is making robotics education attainable and affordable for students worldwide.

We met Dan at the Google Girl Powered event where, during his keynote address, he encouraged girls to take action and get involved in making a difference in the world during his keynote address.  In today’s episode, Dan shares some amazing things including how he worked with the Girls Scouts to establish an affordable, easy to implement badge curriculum on robotics engineering.  We are in agreement with Dan that our communities, and especially the many organizations that support competitive robotics (FIRST, BEST, RoboRave, and Botball to name a few), need to collaborate to create a strong STEM Ecosystem for our students that will positively impact the STEM Workforce Pipeline.

Show Notes

Dan Mantz is Chief Executive Office and Chairman of the Board for the REC Foundation.  Dan is responsible for the long-term strategy, structure, and fiscal health of the organization.  He acts as a direct liaison between the REC Foundation and the Board.  Prior to joining the REC Foundation, Dan was President of RackSolutions for four years and spent 19 year in the industrial robotics industry at FANUC Robotics.

REC Foundation

Girl Powered

VEX Robotics

VEX Worlds

 

Contact:

dan_mantz@roboticseducation.org

Linkedin

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