We Salute — Girl Scouts of Orange County
Opening the Door for Future Leaders in STEM!
From computer forensics labs and medical simulations to the great outdoors, Girl Scouts of Orange County is delivering mind-blowing STEM experiences to young women who may not have realized that science, technology, engineering and math impact almost everything they do in their daily lives. Through the My STEM Life Badge, one of the first STEM badges in the nation, Girl Scouts of Orange County is opening the door to a multitude of exciting careers.
Saachi, a 9th grader from Girl Scout Senior Troop 990 in Irvine, completed her My STEM Life badge in July, which included a visit to the Kaiser Simulation Lab where female doctors demonstrated emergency room scenarios. She discovered how every element of STEM is involved in the daily activity of saving lives.
“Originally, I thought only science and technology were necessary for doctors to save a patient’s life, but now I realize that the engineering of equipment and the mathematics behind procedures are also integral in the ER,” said Saachi.
Asia Pacific Workshop Tackles How to Power a 21st Century Society
International Graduate Students Collaborate on the Future of Smart Manufacturing
In the spring of 2018, Broadcom Foundation continued its renowned University Student Research Workshops to delve deep into smart manufacturing in the era of Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As machines become increasingly automated, energy use is on the rise, requiring critical thinking and collaboration about sustaining the global economy, the environment and quality of life.
The 2018 Asia Pacific Student University Workshop is an international, interdisciplinary convening of graduate students from the University of California, Irvine, CA, the National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, and the University of Hong Kong, China. The Workshop included 22 student participants of diverse academic backgrounds and skills and guest speakers and judges from industry, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), Syntiant Corporation and OCTANE.
“Climate Change, Energy Scarcity, Cyber Security and Sustainability all require innovation in Smart Manufacturing through collaborative research and development between industry and academia to inspire the next generation to innovate in new ways in order […]
Seeing Red for Education – Investing in Education is a National Security Issue
by: Paula Golden, President of Broadcom Foundation
Arriving in Tucson last month, my car passed a sea of red-shirted teachers protesting in solidarity with over 50,000 educators who marched out of their classrooms to the Phoenix statehouse to demand more funding for public schools. Teachers in Arizona and Colorado joined ranks with colleagues from states like West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky – with more to come. 
This phalanx is seeing “Red for Ed’ucation.” Rightly so; and it is no small irony that the people’s rebellion over education has been erupting in so-called ‘Red States’ whose elected officials have rejected federal and state funding strategies that might have averted such devastating consequences. According to the Washington Post, “(t)wenty-nine states now spend less per student on K-12 education than a decade ago… and a number of these states have also cut income taxes, including Oklahoma and Arizona.”
To our everlasting national shame, the United States is eating its own seed corn.
Because politicians have failed to fund comprehensive, […]
Creating International Collaboration for Tomorrow’s Discovery
Breakthroughs in science and engineering don’t happen in a vacuum… but when multi-cultural and cross-disciplinary brainpower combines in one room to tackle big ideas, it moves mountains!
That is the vision behind the Broadcom Foundation University Student Workshops. The KKT Workshop – now in its 16th year – is proof of concept, and the inaugural EMEA Workshop in 2017 and upcoming 2018 Asia Pacific Student Workshop reflect the foundation’s commitment to innovation through international collaboration.
For the 2017 EMEA Student University Workshop, Vice President for Academic Programs & University Relations Nick Alexopoulos partnered with professors from Tel Aviv University, Israel, Imperial College London, U.K., University College Dublin, Ireland, and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India to bring together some of the brightest students in engineering, computer science and neuroscience to collaborate on ‘Brain Emulation.’
The workshop’s topic was born from Nick’s drive to integrate more science and engineering into the health sector. He explains, “the brain is the most efficient source conducting […]
Changing the Game by Middle School: Stopping Sexual Harassment Before It Starts
Tackling sexual harassment in a blog that focuses on inspiring kids to become scientists and engineers might seem incongruous, but as I listen to salacious stories rolling out from the Nation’s Capital and the Big Apple to Hollywood and Silicon Valley, a song from Rogers and Hammerstein’s 1949 Broadway blockbuster South Pacific keeps repeating in my ear:
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
As a Boomer, I grew up believing that a level playing field was all we needed for women to succeed in their chosen fields. The #MeToo movement has radically changed my thinking, so I am adding my voice to the chorus of millennial women who say there needs to be a fundamental cultural shift in the American Workplace.
This cultural shift must begin before patterns of behavior are locked into the human psyche in the early stages of personal growth and development. In a New York Times Op-Ed just today, […]
STEM, Scouting and Finding Your Tribe: The Importance of Rites of Passage in Middle School
I take scouting seriously: my family recited the Boy Scout Law at my father’s funeral as my brother, an Eagle Scout, wept.
Last week, I started a blog about how programs like scouting and the Broadcom MASTERS® create modern-day rites of passage through which young people can find their place in a society that amplifies the positive values and aspirational interests that enables them to become adults in-full and leaders in science, engineering, letters and the arts as well as society at large.
The National Boy Scout Jamboree has been a scouting rite of passage for decades; one that all scouts are encouraged to experience as they go from Tenderfoot to the “apex of leadership and character.” Thus, I was extremely gratified by the Boy Scouts of America CEO’s public disavowal of President Trump’s address at the National Jamboree when, rather than giving guidance and inspiration from a revered elder who tapped into the values embodied in one hundred years of scouting and the United States Constitution, the president gave a […]
Learn a Superpower – Coding
Marking the dawn for yet another superhero revival, Wonder Woman, is enjoying a much-anticipated reprise at movie theaters everywhere — the popular comic heroine finally displays her superpower strength on the big screen.
An idol to young women everywhere, Wonder Woman demonstrates power and ability in both body and mind — she is able to solve problems using what we now call ‘21st century skills’ — problem solving, communication, collaboration and creativity.
How can your own little (K-12) wonder woman acquire these skills? By learning to code! Check out this fun game by Google Play, Made with Code and Warner Bros. Help Wonder Woman fight the bad guys and learn programming concepts at the same time.
Or buy a $35 Raspberry Pi – the tiny, user-friendly computer that makes coding easy and possibilities endless. Learn how to make your own photo booth, weather station or e-book library to name a few. Or how about streaming music, […]
Huffington Post: STE(A)MING MAD AND MARCHING FOR SCIENCE: The Union of Concerned Scientists are Concerned for the Union
This spring, my friend sent me a photo of the Jefferson Memorial, which we visited long before the ascension of Donald Trump and his Republican Congress. The image triggered this thought: were he here today, Thomas Jefferson – scientist, engineer, inventor, botanist, author of the Declaration of Independence, third president of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia (the first to open a school of engineering and applied sciences,) would be leading the March for Science on April 22.
Throngs of scientists and science-minded citizens like me are marching in resistance to the president’s draconian appointments and policies that disavow established science, quell critical thinking, abrogate fact-based knowledge and threaten to roll back advancements in scientific research and education.
Thomas Jefferson would not be pleased; and his immortal words, engraved on the porticos of his memorial, sum up the reasons why my STEM colleagues, the Union of Concerned Scientists and I will march on Washington DC this spring.
First, we march for science […]