Students, parents, educators, and community leaders gathered at Alpharetta City Hall on September 19 for the “Building Georgia’s Future One Robot at a Time” community event, which showcased robotics, technology education, and young innovators. Organized by the Arcturus Robotics teams at STREM HQ Tech Academy, the event featured live demonstrations where student team members invited attendees to take the controls and experience robotics firsthand. Student leaders including Arcturus Apollo captain Vikram Nadkarni, vice-captain Advaith Shankaran, Arcturus Artemis vice-captain Jahnavi Mohan, and business director Kellen Bhatt shared how their involvement helped them build skills in coding, CAD design, problem-solving, teamwork, and public speaking while shaping their future career plans. Both teams have achieved notable competitive success, with Arcturus Artemis advancing to the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship in Houston and Arcturus Apollo representing Georgia in the inaugural Governor’s Cup.
Insights from Community Leaders and Officials:
Elected officials and community leaders attended the gathering to encourage and inspire the young engineers. U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick emphasized perseverance and learning from failure, comparing the iterative design-and-test process in robotics to real-world problem solving. Georgia State Sen. Shawn Still challenged students to consider the future inventions and patents they might create to benefit their communities, while Fulton County Board of Education President Kristin McCabe and Forsyth County Board of Education Chairman Mike Valdes praised the students’ achievements and stressed the importance of expanding meaningful STEM opportunities and utilizing advanced modern tools.
