The Lion's Roundtable (Guests: Jordan Smith-Kenning and Nico Burris)
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Todd Delaney:Discussing topics of interest to the university, Hammond, and the surrounding communities, this is the Lions Roundtable. Now here's your host, Doctor. Amber Narro.
Amber Narro:Good day. Good day. This is Amber Narro on ninety point nine, the Lion. We are here at the Lion's Roundtable, and I have some awesome people that I've been working with for about the last six months here at Southeastern with me today. They are gonna share a little bit about the robotics competition that's happening this Saturday at Southeastern.
Amber Narro:It's North Shore Regional Aid STEM. What are we? Jordan Smith Kenning, come and tell me about North Shore STEM. Talk to me.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Yes. Yes. So we have our first inaugural or whatever we wanna call it event. It's Rumi's Robo Rampage, and Southeastern North Shore STEM is hosting this competition. It's gonna be at the Pennington this year on Saturday starting at 9AM.
Amber Narro:And you're Region 8. Right?
Jordan Smith-Kenning:We're Region 9. So it's a little confusing though, Amber, because we're Region 8 for the science fair, Region 9 for STEM. So we're region whatever we need to be. We're the cool region.
Amber Narro:So you're just North Shore STEM. Just gonna say that today, and that's what we're gonna be. Right?
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Yeah. Well, we're technically Southeastern North Shore STEM.
Amber Narro:Gotcha. Oh, I like it. I like it. Now who do you have with you? I've got Nico Yes.
Amber Narro:With us. Nico Burris. He has come to share a little bit about the STEM program. Who is this person?
Jordan Smith-Kenning:So Nico Buras is one of the coolest people I've ever met in my life, and he is one of our student workers at the STEM Center and has recently been training and attending VEX Robotics Competition. So he is also one of our experts for all things VEX.
Amber Narro:Alright. So Saturday, nine ish kind of things get start off. It's ending 04:30. Y'all are gonna give some awards out.
Nico Burris:Yes. Nico, because Jordan says that you know more about this weekend than anybody else involved, tell me about what we can accept expect on
Nico Burris:Saturday. So on Saturday, we are mainly gonna be just competition after competition. It's going to be very fast paced. But we're gonna have everything in order.
Nico Burris:VEX is a very very fun competition. These high schoolers know everything that they're doing to AT. So hopefully it'll go relatively smoothly. But all of these teams are going to be set up at a couple of different stations doing different types of competitions. There's going to be a skills competition which is individual to each team.
Nico Burris:That's a world ranking, so we're not gonna give any awards for that. But we're also going to have two competition fields with teams playing against each other in two alliances, and it'll be very very fun. We're all looking forward to it. We're gonna have concessions with the honors program. We're going to have lots of teams.
Nico Burris:I think it's 35 teams. Right?
Jordan Smith-Kenning:35 teams and some cool music. It's gonna be a vibe. We're gonna have lots of fun.
Amber Narro:Fantastic. So are these teams already entered in the contest? So they've they've already gotten done the work and everything? What can I just show up? What's what's the deal here?
Nico Burris:Yeah. So teams work all season for these events. From day one, they have robots tuned to every piece of the game. They know what they're doing when they come in. They have their robots built.
Nico Burris:They have their game plan made. Some of them even have plans on who they're going to team up with in the last section of the competition. So it'll
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Lots of strategy happening too.
Amber Narro:Yeah. Okay. So so they're working that out right now as like, kinda heading into the competition. So this is something that you they've
Nico Burris:been working on. What what is working on it all year look like, Nico? So they start out by designing a robot. There are some templates and things that the program will give them, but they have to work from that. It's completely student led.
Nico Burris:So students cannot get any direct help, in a sense, from their coaches or the teachers that are working with them. So they have to build everything from the ground up. They can get some advice and things like that but nothing they can't tell them what to do in any sense. Okay. And so they start out building a robot, designing it based on this game, and from there they just work and work until it's what they need.
Amber Narro:So you give them the assignment when they get there, basically?
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Yes. So Each competition the competition each year has like a game theme and it has the different scoring objectives. So these robots are not just pushing things around. They're actually built with, like, conveyors and loaders. So they're loading up the game pieces, moving them around the the arena that they're in, and they're actively competing against the other team that's in there with them.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:So this year, the theme is called Pushback, and the reason it's called Pushback is because each team has their colored game pieces. So not only are they trying to score as many points as they can get with their game pieces, they're also trying to knock their opponent's game pieces out of the scoring field as well.
Amber Narro:Like chess.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Yes. So it's very offense and defense at the same time. There's an autonomous period, the first sixty seconds of the game, so they can actually program, their robots to hurry up and run and get as much done as they possibly can autonomously before the they take over the manual controls. So it's pretty incredible.
Amber Narro:That is wild. Alright. Talk to me about who is involved already, and let's just name drop some schools, name drop some people. Tell me who we can expect to see in the news after Saturday.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:So we have 35 teams, I believe, from 15 different high schools, and I think we have three middle school teams. So we have anybody from our local teams as close as Pearl River High, Covington High, Pine High. We also have some teams coming all the way from Central and all the way down to South Lafourche, so literally all across the Southeastern part of the state. Schools can enter up to five teams, so some of these schools have three and four teams coming in to compete, where they may start off as an alliance, then all bets are off at the end, and they're competing against each other. Then like I said earlier, we had three or four middle school teams.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:These middle school teams are competing against the high schools. Like
Amber Narro:Are they all from around here? All local?
Jordan Smith-Kenning:I would say within two hours. So we have some teams that are making quite a drive to get here. I think South Lafourche is our furthest team away.
Amber Narro:Nice. Yeah. Nice. Is where did this come about? How did this project start in the very beginning?
Amber Narro:What what led us to this place?
Jordan Smith-Kenning:So what led us to this place was part of our L'STIM initiatives that we have. So we are Region 9 of the LISTEM Council, and there is a robotics initiative. And so there's lots of robotics competitions happening around our state. There's a couple of different robotics programs, and VEX just seemed to be the one that there was a gap kind of in our area where there weren't a lot of competitions available. And
Amber Narro:at
Jordan Smith-Kenning:the STEM Center, we have the know how, and we have the willingness to do it. So we're like, hey. Let's just put on a competition. Honestly, Amber, I was a little worried in the beginning. Like, I hope people wanna sign up and come, and I think our registration closed so early because it filled so fast.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:So So this is really the
Amber Narro:kind of the first of its kind,
Jordan Smith-Kenning:I'm hearing a little bit? For for Southeastern? Yes. Yes. So VEX has been around for quite some time, but this is the first event that like this that Southeastern has held.
Amber Narro:Nico, you've been working with this for months now. Y'all been talking about it. Thank you as well for including honors in this because we'll be providing concessions on Saturday, so come get your concession. All those robotics Yeah. Tea.
Amber Narro:Gonna have some loaded nachos, some cool little chips and candies and stuff like that. But so I appreciate that very, very much. And I'm hoping that they see that the honors program is here at Southeastern, talk to me a little bit about it, and those who are kinda coming into that age group will come see me. Niko, talk to me about the preparation that has gone into putting this together. It's been a lot of
Nico Burris:Yeah. So a lot of that has been a lot of Jordan's prerogative, a lot of the behind the scenes work, getting volunteers together, and all of that. But in terms of the side that I've kinda seen, the training side and all of that, all of our student workers with North Shore STEM have been through quite a few trainings with VEX. We've done referee work, judging work, all of this, getting together all of the signage for the event and just preparing ourselves. I I volunteered at, I think it's two now VEX events, somewhat in preparation and also just because I've kind of fallen in love with it as it's going on.
Nico Burris:It's a wonderful competition. But we've all just been really working in that office to get everything together, volunteers, working with honors for concessions, working with everybody that we can to get everybody together because really the main thing is just that it's a team effort. We're getting as many people as we can to come together on it. Wonderful.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:We have to give a special shout out to to Eric and his team over at The Rec at the Pennington Center. They have been phenomenal with the events that we've hosted, and they are just so supportive of this event, and they are excited to see it happen too. So their team has been amazing.
Amber Narro:Yeah. I feel like it's gonna be the rec week here at, the Lions Roundtable because we're gonna be talking to Annette Baldwin tomorrow. She's gonna share about how the merry market went in the fall at the rec, and they again, super supportive of those efforts and and really kinda dive in. So I'll remember to bring that up when I'm speaking with her and and make sure that we give another shout out to Eric and and his team. That's Eric Amond, and and they're just absolutely wonderful.
Amber Narro:So we appreciate them. Nico, when you're prepping for this as a student, what is this doing for you, for your future, and because you you work at the STEM Center, and you're a paid student worker. So talk to me about what that's doing for your future and what you're gonna be able to talk about in job interviews here going forward. What are your let's talk about you for a minute. What are That's your
Jordan Smith-Kenning:a bet.
Nico Burris:Yeah. So especially whenever it comes to VEX, one of the biggest things is just being able to not only see these teams and support these teams, but also having that kind of leadership experience in a sense. Because even if I'm not exactly telling these teams, like, here's where you go, exactly what you do, like, even just head referee training has been able to kind of push a lot of that, like, here's what you do to lead that referee team even though that's not my position this coming weekend. And just seeing these teams work together and getting that experience within STEM has been so valuable. I know so much more about just the process behind robotics, the process behind all of these competitions than I ever could have in the last couple of weeks.
Amber Narro:Very good. Very good. One of the things that I'm excited about this weekend is that it's just gonna bring all of these students to Southeastern. This is definitely something that they can come and see our university. Southeastern, we are a hidden gem, you know, as far as the rest of universities in this state are concerned.
Amber Narro:You know, of course you hear about the big purple school and then we're forty five minutes from them, you know, and when people get here, they are just amazed at what we have and what we can offer in in kind of a a condensed space so it's not so overwhelming, but also the the ability to have these sorts of things. Jordan, you have absolutely transformed the iHub with your presence in the library. Last year, when you go into the iHub, obviously, people are excited about this new technology on campus, and it's a beautiful space, and it's been renovated, and they were doing broadcast and things like that in that area. Now broadcast has kind of been brought back into D. Vickers for all the right reasons, and we have this beautiful new space in D.
Amber Narro:Vickers Hall where those students are kinda coming over and doing their recordings and things like that. It's even gonna be bigger than that in the spring as this, as the broadcast center kinda officially opens to students. Just for a little bit of background for our listening audience, we did officially open D Vickers for class last fall, but the broadcast part of this has still been kinda going under renovation. While I've been in the or or under building or construction, I should say, because it's brand new part of the building. But while I've been in here doing interviews in this space, there have been people working around us pretty pretty consistently Mhmm.
Amber Narro:Over these last several months. And now, kinda moving in with students coming in, a lot of that activity, the podcasting and things like that that were going on in the iHub have transferred over to the Vickers Hall as they should. And you have kind of opened up some space in that iHub and been bringing in thank you, doctor Wainwright, for this foresight as well as doctor McCarthy in in science and technology. Bringing that STEM center into that place and where it naturally just kinda fits. Tell me what's available in your space to students, to high schools, talk to teachers on how they can use that space and get you involved in that area.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Yeah. So, I mean, the iHub, people gravitate towards it a lot of times. It's just a cool place to be. It it's super it it's super open. There's lots of things.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:But what the STEM Center has brought in, we have our gaming PCs in there, and that's we have open gaming hours for undergraduate students, and really faculty and staff too, if they wanna come in on their We've had some come in on their lunch break and use the flight simulators, they're starting to learn how to do that. We have different types of robots that want run on things like Arduinos and Raspberry Pis.
Amber Narro:I don't know what those are. Those sound like food.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Right? They're super cool, but you can't eat them. We also have, like, our VR headsets. We have three d printers. We have all kinds of things open to pretty much anybody who wants to learn how to use it.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:You know? So in addition to having all these cool meeting spaces where you can collaborate, you could come in and just pick out something and and learn how to use it.
Nico Burris:Who's you?
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Oh, you. I should probably say that. So anybody on Southeastern's campus? And then shout out to the high school teachers who are interested. We'd love to get you into the iHub.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:You know, Fridays are a great day to come in, for field trips usually with teachers a lot, but anytime throughout the week, if you wanna me an email, it's jordan. Smithkeningselu dot edu. Or you can just do stemcenterselu dot edu. We can set something up. Go on a campus tour, have some fun, hang out, show our students what's available when they come to Southeastern.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:So it's a lot more than just a great innovation space. It's it's really a place where you can get to know other students on campus. You can come in and maybe use technology that's not available at your high school, things like that. So we are gonna start hosting some workshops too that'll be open to high school students and teachers soon. So we'll have that on our website and on our social media pages.
Amber Narro:But I do wanna remind everybody that the library is a public space. It totally is. You can anybody can come in. Oh, absolutely. Visitor parking.
Amber Narro:And if you've got a group, definitely give us a call ahead of time, number one, for parking reasons.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Yes.
Amber Narro:And secondly, so that we can give you a little love and attention. We get high school groups coming into the campus a pretty good bit. I've I scheduled one just a couple weeks ago that's coming in in February. They're gonna come and and kinda explore the iHub, explore the honors new space on the 3rd Floor. We're very excited about that.
Amber Narro:And kind of moving people around and Yeah. And and making sure that the right people come to talk to them. Right? Can schedule Jordan to come and talk to this group and things like that. So Yeah.
Amber Narro:And can kind of experience that as a that as a group.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Yeah. So and if teachers or schools or things like that are already having field trips, they can reach out to us and let us know that they're coming, and we can make sure that we're there and available if they wanna stop by even just for, like, twenty minutes just to view the space and and check out all the cool stuff we got.
Amber Narro:Very cool. Nico, when you are telling people about the iHub and the and North Shore STEM, what do you brag about that's available in that space?
Nico Burris:Oh, there is so much to brag about whenever it comes to iHUB. I usually to pull people in, the first thing that I say is VR headsets because there are a lot of people who have never tried that before and think it's really interesting. Or even our, like, quiet gaming room space or any of the gaming computers that tend to really pull people in because that's something that a lot of people do as a hobby but don't necessarily have the equipment for. And then whenever they get there a lot of times it'll be like, okay, maybe you should try like the welding simulator that we have or we have like AR welding or maybe try Laser machine. Yeah.
Nico Burris:Like Yes. We have so many different things. And honestly, it just depends on the person because if I'm talking to a computer science student, then I'll bring up, like, the Arduinos or our computing options that we have. And then if I'm talking to an art student, I might say, hey, have coloring sheets. Like Mhmm.
Nico Burris:We have stuff in every every interest, really. It's just pulling stem into those and really
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Lot of our health sciences and nursing students have kinda discovered the iHub too because on those VR headsets that we have, we have a lot of the medical simulation things too.
Amber Narro:So I've seen those. Those are cool.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Yeah. It's pretty funny to watch somebody learn how to do CPR with a VR headset on, but you have to be very accurate. So if you're not pumping your hands correctly in the correct motion and and testing for pulses, you're not gonna earn the points on that game or on that simulation, so it's pretty funny too. But it's it's it's fun. That's the thing about the iHub is you have this place where you can go in and you're like, well, I've I've never tried that before.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:It's like, in and learn and try. Just hang out and see all the possibilities. I mean, you don't know what you what you like and don't like until you try it. So we like to encourage people just to to come in and just see what we have.
Amber Narro:Indeed. The iHub also can serve as a place where it's kind of hands on experience as well. Lots of events have and you're talking about health care. They also had the Stop the Bleed event there last year where the nursing students actually did come in and have some hands on training in that space. So you've got that, then you walk over to VR and you've got the CPR training.
Amber Narro:I mean, there's really just it is so it's just a wealth of deepening knowledge as as well as interdisciplinary efforts. So we certainly appreciate that. Another thing that I want to remind everybody of is that if you come into the iHub, you also have a quiet gaming space. Yes. That was an initiative.
Amber Narro:Jordan and I I'm I'm on the on the neurodiversity task force here at Southeastern where we realized that this is a growing concern for our student population as well as our faculty who are learning how to strategize and ensure that we support those students. The the best thing about this quiet gaming space is it offers a space where these students can come, and y'all are serious about it because Jordan has had she's had to have some some conversations with some folks. Right? Yeah. So talk to me about this quiet gaming space, Jordan, and thank you for putting this initiative together.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Absolutely. So we do have our main esports computers out in the main iHub area, but we have a dedicated quiet gaming room where the lights are turned down a little lower. Of course, we have all the cool LED lights going around the room and stuff too, but we have desktops dedicated to a quiet space. So there's no shouting, there's no tournaments or anything like You can go into this space and just enjoy gaming without all of the extra external stimuli happening. Now we've had students, because it looks super cool, go in and get a little rowdy, and we're like, nope.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:You gotta go out to the to the icebox if you wanna get rowdy. This is reserved for that kind of quiet and, I mean, honestly, like, it it's the coolest place.
Amber Narro:It really is.
Nico Burris:It's kinda
Jordan Smith-Kenning:got I find myself going in there and getting a little zen sometimes.
Amber Narro:It's got a great vibe. I love it. It does. I love it. The lights are a little dimmer.
Amber Narro:It's quiet. It's it's definitely a place where people can kinda go and and play their games and enjoy that.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Put
Amber Narro:their headsets on and and get into a quiet space where it can be done.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Love it. I mean, even then in that space, we have things like Legos. We have some art supplies. So even if you're not a gamer and you're friends with a gamer and they're going in, there's something for you too if you're not into gaming. We have some model sets that you can do, like building engines and things like that.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:So there's something for everybody.
Amber Narro:Love that. Love that. Alright. This weekend, can the public come?
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Absolutely. It's open to the public. Registration is closed for any
Amber Narro:Is there a cost to get in?
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Nope. It's absolutely free to attend. You can come and go. Parking at the Pennington is open this weekend to anyone since it's a Saturday, so there's no special parking pass or anything like that required. If you wanted to see the alliance competitions, which is after the first original battles are taking place, that'll happen closer to 03:30, with the finals going down around 04:30.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:But it's absolutely open to the public. We encourage people to come. It's not just for people who are into robotics. If you just want to have a good time and see some really cool things happen, you can. I think 95% of our volunteers at the event are Southeastern undergrad students, so shout out to our undergrad students who are taking part in the university, but they're also going to be serving as mentors, almost, in a way.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:So it's almost like if you had a question for an undergraduate, can come in and ask that, too. You can get to know them and see, you know, what they're studying and things like that. So it's it's a really cool event that's got something for everybody.
Amber Narro:Alright. Very good. More information about this. More information about the STEM Center coming to see you, talk to you about North Shore STEM. Talk talk to me about that.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:So to readjust North
Amber Narro:Shore STEM.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Southeastern. Yes. So we're on Southeastern's website under the College of Science and Technology, or you can just throw it in the little search bar on Southeastern's page. Or you can just do southeastern.edu and then back slash stem center excuse me, forward slash stem center. We're going forward.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:And then our social pages, you can just look up Southeastern North Shore STEM. We have Facebook, Instagram, and we're actually on LinkedIn now too. So
Amber Narro:Wonderful. Wonderful. What are you excited about this weekend, Nika?
Nico Burris:Out of everything, I'm excited to see the teams that I've been keeping an eye on. From the first regional competition of this year, it was at Springfield. I have been kinda keeping up with everybody's scores, and I'm very excited to see where everybody has gotten. So
Amber Narro:Excellent. So you're looking forward to the awards.
Nico Burris:Oh, yeah. Definitely.
Amber Narro:I love it. I love it. When we when we host the Bonnie Gordon speech and theater festival Mhmm. Here on Southeastern's campus, we bring high schools from all around the area. They're competing to go on to state rally, and we, the excitement that they have when they get those awards at the end of the night is worth the whole day where we've been working our tails off to get there Oh, yeah.
Amber Narro:Because that's your gratification, isn't it? Mhmm. Love it. Love it. Call me at where do I call you?
Jordan Smith-Kenning:I was like, I don't know. Where's your my number is (985) 549-3306. And then, again, our our email address is stemcenter@selu.edu.
Amber Narro:Thank y'all for joining us. I appreciate y'all being here today.
Jordan Smith-Kenning:Thanks, Amber.
Amber Narro:I've been with Jordan Smith Kenning and Nico Burris today talking about the robotics competition that's coming to Southeastern this weekend. If you come on in nine to about 04:30 ish this weekend, awarding at 04:30, we'll be having the big robotics competition, and you can get snacks there too. Support the honors program. So I appreciate all of y'all for being here. Support North Shore STEM Southeastern North Shore STEM here at Southeastern Louisiana University located in the library.
Amber Narro:That's Sims Memorial Library within the iHub. So all those things, just visit Southeastern. Google STEM. Google Southeastern North It'll Shore bring you straight to us. Thank you all for joining us today.
Amber Narro:I appreciate you.
Nico Burris:Thank you.
Amber Narro:And thank you for listening here on 90.9. I'm Amber Narro. We're at the Lion's Roundtable, Thursdays and Fridays at 09:00. Join us again. Y'all have a great day.
Todd Delaney:Thank you for joining us today. You missed any part of the show, you can listen to the lions roundtable on demand at our website, lionupradio.org. The podcast version is also available for download from Amazon, Google, Spotify, and TuneIn.
