AutomationDirect Named a STEM Education Awards Finalist

The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), the state’s leading association dedicated to the promotion and economic advancement of Georgia’s technology industry, recently announced that AutomationDirect has been named as a Finalist in the Corporate Outreach category for the 2014 STEM Education Awards. This award program recognizes schools, programs and companies for outstanding efforts and achievements in supporting and promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Education in the state of Georgia.

For the past nine years, AutomationDirect has funded local-competition robotics teams in Forsyth County and surrounding school systems (the “Forsyth Alliance”). Funding is primarily used to provide exciting STEM activities to all students in Forsyth County by ensuring there is at least one competition robotics team in every school and tournaments to compete in. Some schools now have over a dozen teams in multiple programs. Forsyth Alliance teams participate in local, state, national, and world competitions, including FIRST Lego League, FIRST Robotics, VEX, VEX IQ, BEST, Sea Perch and MATE.

“We have found there is no better way to get a young mind excited about STEM than to get them involved in a competition robotics program,” says Rick Folea, Senior Training Developer at AutomationDirect. “The Alliance now supports over 100 teams in Forsyth County. The excitement of competition drives their desire to learn in the classroom.”

This year’s Finalists were chosen in 8 categories:

Elementary School
Middle School
High School
Post Secondary Outreach
Extracurricular Program
STEM Certified School Outreach
Corporate Outreach
Best STEM Day Activity

Winners in each category will be officially honored at the 3rd Annual STEM Education Awards event scheduled fSeptember 26, at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center in Savannah, GA. The event is presented by TAG, the TAG Education Collaborative (TAG-Ed), a non-profit 501c3 dedicated to advancing STEM education in Georgia, and TAG Savannah.

For more information about TAG and the 3rd Annual STEM Education Awards or to attend the event, visit http://bit.ly/STEMinfo2014