MEDIA, Pa. — The Brandywine LaunchBox held a Youth Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) and Startup Day for middle school students on May 15. More than 90 students from five local middle schools — Chester Charter Scholars Academy, Haverford Middle School, Radnor Middle School, Upper Merion Area Middle School and Valley Forge Military Academy — attended the event to learn about physics, entrepreneurship, robotics and more.
“Brandywine's faculty and community partners delivered a great day of workshops, activities and excitement to showcase our campus,” said Tony Mattei, director of entrepreneurship and digital marketing. “The middle school students were engaged, and I'm thrilled we can offer this program to the school districts in our region.”
Mattei collaborated with five Brandywine faculty and CTDI, a full-service global engineering company, to facilitate activities and workshops for the event. Lecturer in Engineering Megann Hedgecock hosted a prototyping workshop, Assistant Teaching Professor of Physics Shruti Shrestha held an innovative electronics workshop, Associate Professor of Mathematics Michael Yatauro held a workshop featuring coding with bolt robots and Associate Teaching Professor Samantha Pezzimenti hosted a workshop about the surface area of bubbles. CTDI presented an engineering workshop using Arduino code to activate a motor and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to perform functions that included blinking the LEDs or pulsing the motor.
Students in a workshop about the surface area of bubbles.
Assistant Teaching Professor of Physics Shruti Shrestha helping a student with an innovative electronics workshop.
Students flying a paper airplane in a prototyping workshop.
Eric Smith from Launch Point Labs speaking during his keynote address.
Students participating in an engineering and coding workshop held by CTDI.
Students navigating a bolts and robots workshop at STEAM and Startup Day.
Philadelphia Freeway and DJ Crazy during their keynote address at STEAM and Startup Day.
In addition, startup workshop presenters included Eric Smith, co-founder and chief executive officer of Launch Point Labs, and Philadelphia Freeway, founder of the Freedom Thinkers Academy. Smith, who hosted a workshop on empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs, said he enjoyed seeing the high school students excited about entrepreneurship.
“Seeing students bring their ideas to life is a powerful reminder of why this work matters. Brandywine LaunchBox has created a space where young people feel supported as they explore real-world challenges, take smart risks and transform their ideas into practical solutions,” Smith said. “Launch Point Labs is proud to partner with Brandywine LaunchBox in supporting the next generation of innovators.”
Brandywine’s Youth STEAM and Startup Day was sponsored by The Meridian Fund and Halliday Properties Youth Programs Grant.
