Over one week from January 15th to 18th, during the summer school holidays, our team travelled across three regions in the North Island offering opportunities to places outside of the usual big city-hubs. We visited Hastings, Tūrangi, Cambridge, culminating in a main event in Tauranga.
The FREE Summer Robot and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tour around New Zealand’s North Island showcased and promoted robotics and AI and its career possibilities for adults to children as young as 8 years old. We went to a different location each day that included an interactive talk and demonstration from our friends at Datacom, along with some hands-on activities for visitors provided by industry and community partners.
A huge thanks to our friends at Datacom for their support and collaboration on this project, especially Tim and Steve who came on tour with us and Hastings Library, Tongariro School, Cambridge Town Hall, and Tauranga Boys’ College for hosting us.
Here are some photos from the event at Hastings, Tūrangi, and Cambridge.
Our headline event was held at Tauranga and featured a Robotics and AI talk and demonstration with Datacom with some awesome guest speakers.
Additional activities were also provided by amazing partners:
- Robotics with STEAM-Ed
- Robotics with Tauranga Libraries Digital Team
- Drones with Agridroneco
- Robotics with University of Waikato
- InsectBot finalist Lucy and winner Matai
- Tinkd Makerspace
Photos of Tauranga event:
A huge thanks to our amazing speakers:
Sarina Todd – MC
Mechatronics engineering intern advocating for equity and accessibility of STEM education.
Steve Swallow – Datacom
Leading Datacom’s presence and creating value for our customers across Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, Waikato and Bay of Plenty.
Henry Williams – University of Auckland
Research Fellow in the Centre of Automation, and Robotics Engineering Science (CARES) at the University of Auckland, led by Bruce MacDonald.
Amber Taylor – Ara Journeys
CEO & Co-Founder at ARA Journeys | Māori Tech Entrepreneur & Diversity Advocate Building the Real-World Metaverse
Daniel Schweizer – Agridroneco
Owner of Agridroneco. A small business specialising in providing drone based services to NZ farmers. Spraying, spreading and farm mapping using the latest in drone technology.
Featuring Datacom
Datacom works with organisations and communities across Australia and New Zealand to make a difference in people’s lives and help organisations use the power of tech to innovate and grow. Our vision is to enable our customers and communities to thrive and shape their own futures.
Built on strong values, Datacom has grown to be one of Australasia’s leading locally-owned technology businesses, with more than 6500 people and $1.49 billion in revenue. Datacom is the largest technology company in New Zealand.
STEM in the Community Summer Tour 2024 was supported by Taupo District Council and Tauranga Western Bay Community Event Fund.