Two Days ago, three Spartronics members – Maxwell, Carly and Calvin – and Mentor Kevin Hawkins helped to represent FIRST Washington at a fantastic special event last night at MOHAI. Doña Keating – a former Spartronics Mentor and now FIRST WA Board – member invited Spartronics 4915 to the 2023 Innovation Exchange event with top leaders and representatives from throughout Seattle’s burgeoning Space and established Aerospace industries.

They had many amazing speakers and panelists including:

Phil Joyce Senior Vice President, Blue Origin

Tim Kienberger Chief Executive Officer, LeoStella

Brian E. O’Toole Chief Executive Officer, BlackSky

Mike Sinnett Vice President and General Manager, The Boeing Company

Sarah HQ Li, Aeronautics and Aerospace College of Engineering, University of Washington

Skye Mceowen, Aeronautics and Aerospace College of Engineering, University of Washington

Skye gave a shoutout to FIRST as she’s an alumni of Skunkworks Team 1983. Skye told the over 100 people in attendance she is where she is today because of her start with FIRST robotics! Several other panelists gave praise to robotics for students.

Our own Calvin, a sophomore Business and Marketing subteam member, was able to ask one of the few audience questions during the stellar panel, receiving huge applause when he introduced himself as a member of Spartronics FIRST Team 4915.

 

It was great for our newer students to meet Doña and her husband Charles Keating and daughter Merrill. Merrill is a Spartronics alumni, leaving us for early admission into UW where she is Mechanical Engineer Major with a minor in Applied Math. A special thank you to Dona and especially the staff at MOHAI who were gracious and super welcoming to our team!