All 21st-century students deserve a role in engineering the future. McCombs will give a first-person account of what happens when children are given an opportunity to see what they are capable of in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). He believes that hands-on, mentor-driven robotics education contributes to a sense of self-efficacy, which may be the one of the greatest advances we can see this generation make.

Over the past twelve years, Mark McCombs has been a part of FIRST Robotics as a student on a high school team, as a college mentor, a head coach, volunteer, tournament director, and now Affiliate Partner for FIRST Lego League in the North Florida Region. As a student in the program, Mark was profoundly impacted by mentors and engineering idols who turned his curiosities towards the field of Mechanical Engineering. Now the founder of a machine design, engineering, and fabrication company, McCombs spends most of his time working on Renaissance Jax, a nonprofit he founded with the mission of expanding access to the very program that shaped his experiences as a young engineer.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx