CARLSBAD — The young, the old, and the robotic gathered at the La Costa Glen retirement community in Carlsbad on Tuesday for an intergenerational educational event focused on the wonders of technology.
In a partnership between Tri-City Christian High School in Vista and La Costa Glen’s tech committee, students from the school’s robotics team spoke to a room of around 40 retirees about how they design robots and how they participate in competitions.
Then, they gave a live demonstration using three of their actual robots, using controllers to make them do various tasks such as retrieving objects, shooting a paper airplane, and navigating a maze. La Costa Glen residents had the chance to try it out for themselves and see students’ creations firsthand.
“It’s just so nice to see young kids working together as a team and, you know, doing things that are going to make a difference in the world and the future,” resident Larry Greenfield said. “They’re teaching me a lot of stuff and it’s great. These robots are just incredible.”
The event came to fruition at the urging of La Costa Glen resident Bette Starke, whose grandson Liam is a freshman on the TCCHS robotics team. She said many of La Costa Glen’s residents are interested in tech or come from tech backgrounds and that past events, such as a panel on artificial intelligence last year, have been a great success.
“There was so much interest, that I thought they’d like to see some young high school kids,” Bette Stark said. “It was exciting to have him [Liam] come with his team and demonstrate this to the senior community, because the seniors here love to be around young people.”
Liam Starke, a 15-year-old freshman, said the team has held other demonstrations in the community, such as at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, but this was the team’s first time doing something like this.
“It’s pretty cool to let other people see what we’re doing, and how we build the robots and stuff,” he said.
La Costa Glen resident and Tech Team leader Fred Johansen said that, as someone with a background in mechanical engineering, getting to learn from the students was fascinating.
“They’re the next generation of techies. They’re going to be the scientists and engineers coming up. We can see ourselves in what they’re doing,” Johansen said.
