Automation Direct Supports Student Robotics Teams (and you should too!)
Automation NotebookAutomationDirect SpotlightIssue 56, 2025Student SpotlightStudent Spotlight

Automation Direct Supports Student Robotics Teams (and you should too!)

Building and Growing Robotics Teams AutomationDirect started supporting student robotics efforts in 2005 by sponsoring a single high school robotics team, as part of the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) organization. FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team 1746, also known as Team OTTO, which began as a community team of students from…
Diving Deep into STEM Education
AutomationDirect SpotlightIssue 55, 2025Notebook IssueStudent SpotlightStudent Spotlight

Diving Deep into STEM Education

This student team gained valuable STEM experience by developing an underwater remote operated vehicle, and they accelerated their efforts by using commercially available industrial-grade components. By: Geoff Gardener, North Paulding High School Exploration of both the deep sea and of outer space share a lot in common. Both are extremely unforgiving environments where it is…
Cultivating Curiosity with Automated Edu-tainment
AutomationDirect SpotlightIssue 54 - 2025Notebook IssueStudent SpotlightStudent Spotlight

Cultivating Curiosity with Automated Edu-tainment

Crafting agricultural education experiences that are also fun is a specialty requiring a mix of creativity and technology. Byline: Justin Hiemstra, Heemer Crafted Capturing the interest of a young person today can be a tough task, especially considering the proliferation of mobile devices and the obsession with screen time. However, there are still important opportunities…
FIRST Robotics Competition 2025 Digital Animation Award Winners
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FIRST Robotics Competition 2025 Digital Animation Award Winners

This award, sponsored by AutomationDirect, celebrates the art of digital animation and its close relationship to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics). The 2025 Digital Animation Award is offered to help encourage students to cultivate skills in design and creation of animation including, but not limited to, storytelling, creativity, use of computer software, and…
Industry Supports Rocket Science
AutomationDirect SpotlightIssue 53, 2024Notebook IssueStudent SpotlightStudent Spotlight

Industry Supports Rocket Science

Industrial-grade products provide a path for this student organization to develop a space-capable rocket. Byline: Oleg Khalimonov, Space Concordia Many are familiar with the phrase “it isn’t rocket science.” But today more than ever, sometimes it is rocket science. SpaceX and other organizations have made rocket launches and space exploration commercially viable and almost commonplace,…
2025 Digital Animation Award
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2025 Digital Animation Award

This FIRST award, sponsored by AutomationDirect, celebrates the art of digital animation and its close relationship to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics).  NEW FOR 2025: Separate competitions for FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge teams. The 2025 Digital Animation Awards are offered to help encourage students to cultivate skills in design and creation of animation…
Harnessing the Power of Play: Engaging PLC Students with a Vehicle Simulator
AutomationDirect SpotlightIssue 52, 2024Student SpotlightStudent Spotlight

Harnessing the Power of Play: Engaging PLC Students with a Vehicle Simulator

Students in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, have found a way to combine their passion for video games with the industrial controls coursework they are studying at the Centennial Secondary School. The team  of 11th  and 12th year students was guided by their instructor; John Harpell, an electronics and automation controls veteran with thirty years of experience….
Student Spotlight: OSU Students Save Dying Fish
AutomationDirect SpotlightIssue 48 -2022Notebook IssueStudent SpotlightStudent Spotlight

Student Spotlight: OSU Students Save Dying Fish

A team of engineering students from Oklahoma State emailed Automation Direct last year with a disturbing problem: Fish were dying! These engineering students had been contacted, in turn, by students in the nearby Culinary Arts program who run an aquaponics farm.  Aquaponics combines aquaculture (raising fish and other marine life in tanks) with hydroponics (growing…