Caterpillar Employees Volunteer at UA Little Rock Summer Camp, Inspiring Young Innovations

Demonstrating a strong commitment to education and community, Caterpillar, Inc. employees volunteered their time and expertise at the UA Little Rock VEX Robotics Camp.

North Little Rock-based Caterpillar Inc. is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives. Caterpillar gives their employees some paid time off to volunteer in the community, and three employees who participate in Caterpillar Young Professionals, an employee outreach group, spent a day volunteering with students learning about robotics.

The volunteers included Blake Hughey, manufacturing engineer and chairman of Young Professionals, Gino Romano, manager of production and vice chair of Young Professionals, and Evan Koleszar, manufacturing engineer and communications chair for Young Professionals. Their involvement is helping to inspire and educate the next generation of young roboticists, fostering a passion for engineering and innovation.

"We have been supporting the robotics team and giving ideas for improvements that the students can make to their robots," Hughey said. "Since we are focused on young professionals, this is a chance for us to engage in the community, and robotics is a great entry point for young members of society to get involved in some of the aspects of what we do in our workplace. This is a great way to shine some light into what we do and be involved in the robotics program."

More than 20 students in grades 5-8 participated in the robotics camp this summer at UA Little Rock. The campers gained valuable skills in robotics, programming, and teamwork. Students utilized VEX IQ to design, construct, and program a robot that they used in a robotics competition at the end of camp.

Dr. Sandra Leiterman, managing director of the Cyber Arena who runs the robotics camp, expressed excitement about having professionals from Caterpillar share their experience with the students.

"When I was a math teacher at Fuller Middle School, my all-girls robotics team won the Caterpillar Award in Excellence for Best Robotics in 2013," Leiterman said. "It seems serendipitous that Caterpillar employees got a hold of me to volunteer at UA Little Rock's robotics camp. These hard-working professionals are bringing their real-world experience to the camp and teaching students about the team roles the students are assigned at camp. The students have enjoyed learning what happens at Caterpillar, and it was exciting to see a real-world connection between what we do here in camp and careers at Caterpillar."

By sharing their expertise and enthusiasm, these Caterpillar volunteers are helping to inspire the next generation of engineers and innovators.

"I just like seeing how creative the students can be," Koleszar said. "Everyone wants to get involved in the community because we love the Little Rock area. By volunteering at events like the robotics camp, we can get the conversation started and see how we can help our community."