The Eastern Shore is no stranger to robotics thanks, in part, to one of Wallops’ hardest working STEM advocates.
Amy Davis, electronics engineer for NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, has influenced primary, secondary and college students across Maryland and Virginia’s Eastern Shore and Delaware to participate and excel in the First Robotics and VEX robotics programs.
The Wallops Robotics Alliance Project, a program led by Davis, consists of members from across NASA dedicated to the promotion of STEM outreach through robotics competitions. The mission of the Robotics Alliance Project is to create a human, technical, and programmatic resource of robotics capabilities to enable the implementation of future robotic space exploration missions.
The program has grown through the years from two teams to more than 13 teams today throughout Delmarva. More growth is expected in the coming years. Davis pushes the main objective of the Robotics Alliance to increase student awareness and outreach of STEM activities through various robotics activities. Davis focuses on all students but gives more attention to the elementary students to help influence their desire in robotics at an early age.
“The energy and excitement from the students, whether it is a site evaluation or competition, continues to improve and reach new levels,” said Davis. “Designing, building and creating new ideas helps students follow the engineering design process without them actually realizing that’s what they are doing.”
Davis is a graduate of Eastern Shore Community College, Virginia, with an associate degree in Electronic Technology and a bachelor’s degree in Physics with minors in Micro Electronics and Math from Salisbury University.
Wallops Flight Facility