Testimonials

Ethan

When I look back on the path that brought me to where I am today—working on the cutting edge of technology and contributing to the advancement of space exploration—I can trace it through many milestones. On paper, it's the coursework and degree I earned from The University of Alabama in Huntsville, or the internships that offered real-world exposure. It's the late nights spent wrestling with Dynamics problems, the countless hours devoted to job applications, interviews, and networking, and the summers spent working in machine shops and manufacturing facilities.

But the roots go much deeper.

They reach back to a fourth-grade classroom at Battle Academy, where I was programming Lego Mindstorms robots to complete missions for the First Lego League. That year, my team and I designed and built a four-wheel-drive robot to conquer the high bridge on the competition table—my first real application of the engineering design process. From there, it was STEM School Chattanooga and the First Robotics Challenge (FRC), where each season brought a new set of complex problems. We weren’t just learning engineering—we were living it: designing, fabricating, wiring, programming, and iterating as a team to meet real challenges.

Even today, when I’m tasked with developing a new manufacturing process or addressing a non-conformance, I find myself drawing on those early experiences—cutting FRC parts on a CNC machine, troubleshooting electrical systems, or revising design specs with my team.

I know I wouldn’t be where I am now—helping build the next generation of liquid fuel rocket engines as part of the BE-4 program at Blue Origin—without the opportunities I had through programs like FLL, FRC, and Greenpower USA. These initiatives gave me hands-on experience, sparked my curiosity, and built the foundation for everything that’s come since.

I’m deeply grateful for the teachers, mentors, and volunteers who made those programs possible—and for organizations like Tennessee Valley Robotics that continue to create the spaces where students like I once was can learn, explore, and ultimately become the engineers and innovators of tomorrow.

Anna

Robotics drew me in through art. It kept me hooked with engineering. In elementary school, I had always dreamed of becoming an artist, maybe an actress. I wanted to be in the school play, but I ended up joining the robotics team instead. That was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me.

At first, it should have been no surprise that my favorite part of robotics practice was putting together, rehearsing, and making props for a skit that related to the theme of that year’s robotics challenge. The realm of robot building and programming was something that I felt best left to the more knowledgeable team members. But, before I knew it, I was old enough to be classed with the more experienced, whether I liked it or not, and I was needed to help with the programming aspect of the competition.

If I had to pinpoint a moment where I started to truly get into engineering, this was it. I became so fascinated with programming that I started teaching myself as much as I could. I found books, borrowed supplies, and signed up for online courses. Thanks to the funding from Tennessee Valley Robotics, my teammates and I often had the opportunity to take robot supplies home and practice our skills, so I ended up designing my own course of challenges that I had to program the robot to do. My parents were constantly annoyed with the tape lines I was putting on our garage floor when mapping out some new program.

Little did I know it, but, in addition to all the math that programming required, which I soon began to truly love, plenty of my “artsy” side could come out, too. First, it was with the obstacles that I was designing for my programs. Then, it was in finding creative ways to solve them. Finally, it was in documenting all of this. Recording our team’s use of the engineering design process, which required both concision and replicable detail, soon became a new art to learn, and even my notes at school began to take on the same style.

In retrospect, developing a love for programming, math, and the engineering design process could lead a person down many different paths, from mechanical, software, or electrical engineering, to project management or something in between. But isn’t electrical the “why” behind it all? The robots we build and the code we write wouldn’t be possible without the electrical engineering in our power grid, computers, robot motors, batteries, and sensors. So, even if competitive robotics may have exposed me more directly to the programming and mechanical side of engineering, the skills that robotics developed will surely help me charge ahead into electrical engineering at Tennessee Tech, my next big adventure. In reality, it was the development of these skills, made possible by Tennessee Valley Robotics, that first pushed me down a path toward engineering, where creativity and a love for art are just as important as when I dreamed, so long ago, of becoming an artist.