Zachary Ridings, manager of the Advanced Geospatial Lab at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, works with students to use virtual reality goggles during the Innovate USA Summit and Expo on Oct. 13.
A representative from the United States Air Force talks with students about how military thinks about innovation and utilizes cutting-edge technologies such as robotics.
The event kicked off Missouri Innovation Week, a statewide initiative held Oct. 13-15, and brought together more than 750 middle school, high school and college students along with educators, entrepreneurs, business and civic leaders to explore emerging technologies. Held in The Post Building in downtown St. Louis, it featured hands-on AI training, robotics demonstrations with the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation and the UMSL School of Engineering and the beginning of the 33.5-hour Innovate USA Civic AI Hackathon sponsored by Scale AI and UMSL.
Mike Seper, the director of innovation and intellectual property at UMSL, launched the initiative with the goal of helping students of different ages see how recent advancements in technology can be applied to real-world challenges. The event gave them a chance to discover what piques their interest.
“This offers the students real ways that they can have a tactile approach to learning,” Seper said. “It just opens up their view of science and technology.”
These photographs were taken by UMSL photographer Derik Holtmann and are the latest to be featured in Eye on UMSL. View more UMSL photos by visiting the UMSL Flickr and Instagram accounts.
