FlexFactor®: Month of the Military Child
In recognition of the Month of the Military Child, NextFlex hosted a special FlexFactor iteration with the Youth Center at US Army Garrison Fort Jackson (Columbia, South Carolina). The Youth Center serves military-connected students in grades 6-12.
Over the course of a week, NextFlex, Boeing, and Midlands Technical College partnered to deliver FlexFactor to a small group of 7 young women in 6th and 7th grades. During the program students learned about FHE and its applications from technical guest speaker Dr. Michael Mitchell (Boeing) and were introduced to the manufacturing pathways at Midlands Technical College. With the help of industry and education mentors, teams identified a real-world problem they care about; conceptualized an FHE-enabled product to address the issue; and built a business model around it. On Friday, April 15th the teams presented their product ideas to a panel of military leaders. Product concepts included a Roomba-like robot that can identify and pull weeds in a lawn and a flexible food poisoning detector. The panel was extremely impressed with the student ideas and presentations.
The average military child moves six to nine times during their academic lifetime. By providing FlexFactor directly through the Youth Services Division, NextFlex and our partners are reaching an important group of young people and advancing DoD goals of supporting military families while also engaging the next generation of STEM leaders and innovators.
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