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Volunteer Focus: Using Robotics to Make STEM Learning Fun

This National Volunteer Month, we’re bringing a few of our volunteers to you. Meet Akash Shah, who volunteers his time teaching local students STEM and real-world engineering skills by helping them build and program robots for local robotics competitions.

Q: Tell us about your role at the company and how long you have worked here?

A: I work in Project Management Support as an information management analyst, helping manage the many projects underway to enhance the reliability of the local energy grid. I started as an intern in March 2016 and became a full-time employee in February of this year.

Q: What organization do you volunteer for and how do you volunteer your time with them?

A: I volunteer with FIRST Robotics. Through the organization, I mentor several of the teams and serve as a key volunteer at several of the organization’s competitions.

Q: FIRST Robotics…Is that what I think it is?

A: Yes, we deal with robots. I help mentor local high school students by teaching them STEM in a fun way—through robotics.  They get to build their own robot and put it to the test in formal competitions. I think STEM plays an important part in our world. I get a lot of joy from sharing my knowledge of the STEM fields with the students and helping them explore ways to make things better or improve upon something.

Q: You said you also serve as a key volunteer. What does that entail?

A: Well, by key volunteer it could mean many things. Really, it depends on what the organization needs and how best my skills can be used to help them. At many of these competitions, I’ll serve as a judge, inspect robot entries, and work as a referee. In recent years, I have been tasked with being one of the lead volunteers for competitions, which means I’m responsible with coordinating and making sure the events run smoothly.

Q: And how long have you volunteered with FIRST Robotics?

A: I’ve been a volunteer since 2014 but was first introduced to the organization as a student.

If interested in learning more about FIRST Robotics and how you can get involved, visit firstinspires.org.

In 2018, Delmarva Power employees volunteered nearly 16,000 hours to help about 460 unique organizations throughout Delaware and Maryland. That’s equal to volunteering 2,000 work days. These contributions are part of our continued commitment to powering communities and being a good corporate citizen for the areas where we live and work.