Listen:
Behind one storefront at Tampa’s University Mall, you won’t find people shopping- you’ll find them inventing.
Inside the AMRoC Fab Lab, students of all ages take STEM classes and learn to create at little to no cost.
17-year-old Jonathan Smith stands proudly in front of two small robots inside a busy workshop.
“The one-pounder is a vertical spinner combat robot, and my smaller one is called Little Rocketeer. That is a flipper with the intent to flip my opponent upside down as many times as I possibly can,” Smith told WMNF.
He’s one of many inventors building and experimenting at the Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics Center, or AMRoC, a space where students are surrounded by tech and tools to bring their ideas to life.
His bots will be on display at this Saturday’s Gulf Coast MakerCon.
It’s a convention where creators will be able to share resources, show off arts and crafts, and – of course- battle robots.
“Combat robotics is always an exciting event and is always fun to watch and see because you get to see sparks fly, you know, on occasion, you’ll get to see some flames, but it’s always safe. We always keep a good watch out,” AMRoC program director Vicky Gonzalez said.
But they have combat robotics is just one part of the services the workshop offers- they have drone classes, 3d printing, and sewing, often for low or no cost.
In one corner, a small group is laser-focused on sewing.
For Hayley Hess, it’s more than a hobby – it’s career prep.
“I’m trying to get a job that’s very related to that, based on not just custom designing, but also perhaps alteration,” Hess said.
That spirit of possibility is what co-founder Steve Willingham said inspired him to start AMRoC in a little garage years ago.
Willingham is the founder of Foundation for Community Driven Innovation, the nonprofit behind the AMRoC Fab Lab.
He said the now 8,000-square-foot lab ended up in the University Mall after a parent of an AMRoC student suggested the location.
“She took us over to this empty storefront, and they raised the gate, and we walked in and we thought oh my gosh – this place is huge. And how are we ever going to fill it up? Because we’re working out of our garage right now. But within six months, we have so many people that were so interested and thankful in what we are doing that we had filled it up,” Willingham told WMNF.
And since then, the program has been filled with students from middle school age to their late 70s coming together to build and create.
And Vicky Gonzalez said it’s magical.
“It’s really fun and really exciting because you get to see the younger generation that has really grown up with technology, but it’s still ever growing, ever changing, very vast. So we get to introduce them to machinery that they might not be able to afford or have exposure to, but they absorb it so quickly. And then you get to have an older generation that, you know, maybe this is all new and really different for them, but they’re still getting to have that experience, and you get to share different knowledge of old school and new school,” Gonzalez said.
And although robotics may seem complex, the best advice Jonathan Smith says he’s received is simple: there’s no such thing as a stupid question.
“You could have a question that other builders might think, ‘oh, this is the most obvious thing in the world, ’ but you’re new to this. You don’t – you may not know. Feel free to ask them that question. And I found it to be very awesome that everybody is just that helpful,” Smith said.
Gulf Coast MakerCon is Saturday, May 31st from 10am-6pm at the Yuenling Draft Haus & Kitchen. Fore more information, click here.
Leave a Reply
