James Takamine and some of his staff at American Savings Bank met with Art Kimura today about possibly sponsoring an exhibit on robotics at the E Malama ‘Aina festival, which is a festival that emphasizes sustainability.

It was an amazing experience listening to Art tell us how robotics help students learn how to cooperate and innovate, and that they become so involved they don’t even realize they are learning engineering concepts. Robotic students are more than eight times more likely to end up in the engineering field than students without a background in robotics.

He talked about how the program depends on dedicated teachers that are willing to accept the challenge. They help the program get off the ground and then invariably fall behind the students as time goes on.

The students enter an international competition with students from China, Japan and other countries. Sometimes the Hawai‘i high school students compete against graduate school students in those countries and hold their own. One group from Waiakea High School won first place in the international competition. Very impressive.

Art told us they are now doing competitions where the students help older people compete. We all know how kids can run circles around us when it comes to electronic gadgets, and Art says it’s the same way with robotics. He says the adults just love being a part of this project where the students are learning and don’t even know it.

How is robotics related to the subject of sustainability? We know that robots are used to assemble and paint cars. Could they be used to help our local agricultural industry?

I’ll bet if we think hard enough about this we may be able to find ways in which robots can help us do our work. I wonder if the students could help us design a banana harvesting machine?