Bridge Lab Project - Interview w/ Jerry

Jerry and I first met two summers ago at Doing Good, where we spent a lot of time talking about the reality of STEM education in different parts of the world. As a founder of the RobotArm Project, I’ve spent months in the lab, but I knew that theoretical planning only goes so far. To make this project work, I needed to talk with someone more familiar with matters on the ground.

Jerry, who attended high school in the region before coming to SUNY Korea, sat down with me to break down the hardware constraints and educational gaps we need to solve before our launch this spring. Below is a summary of our interview!

The Reality of the Classroom

Elin: Thinking back to your high school, what was the STEM environment actually like day-to-day?

Jerry: It was actually a very high-pressure, high-achievement environment. I went to a top-tier public gifted high school, so the student body was incredibly driven. In an average year, more than 70 students would secure national awards. I personally competed on the robotics team and represented my state at the Vietnam Science and Engineering Fair.

Elin: If the talent was there, what was the missing piece?

Jerry: Funding and infrastructure. Even at a top school, the lab was outdated. I spent a lot of my time trying to organize robotics events and raise money just to keep the lab running. We had the brains and the drive to win national competitions, but we didn't always have the hardware to match our ambitions.

Elin: If you could have had one piece of tech back then, what would it have been?

Jerry: A standardized robotic toolkit. When you're trying to lead a team or teach fellow students, having a consistent kit makes the process ten times faster. The problem was the cost, as most high-quality kits cost upwards of $1,000 USD. Since we were a public high school, we just didn't have those kinds of resources, no matter how gifted the students were.

Elin: How did you manage to teach your peers without those kits?

Jerry: It was a struggle. We spent more time scavenging and trying to make outdated parts work together than we did on actual engineering or strategy. If we’d had a modular system like the one we’re developing for the Robot Arm Project, we could have focused on high-level programming and innovation instead of just basic troubleshooting.

The Goal for this Summer

Elin: How do we make sure this lasts and isn’t just a one-time thing?

Jerry: It comes down to finding a student on the ground who is genuinely passionate about the project. You need a leader who wants to see it grow year after year. But passion alone isn't enough. You need a system. If we care about these students, we have to be committed to showing up every year, not just once.

Elin: From a design perspective, the biggest challenge has been making the arm advanced enough to be useful, but simple enough to teach from a distance. How do we measure success?

Jerry: I want every student to walk away being able to program a pick-and-place sequence. If a student can code a robot to move an object from Point A to Point B accurately, they’ve mastered the core fundamentals of automation. That’s the real win.

Are students at your former school more motivated by competing against each other (e.g., a Robot Olympics) or by working together on one big project?

Jerry: It’s definitely competition. At a top-tier high school, everyone is pushing to be the best and earn specific titles. If you give the RobotArm to an individual, they will compete to see who can build the most efficient or advanced version. But there's a second layer: if you give it to the high school or the robotics club, the motivation shifts toward the younger generation. They’ll use that competitive spirit to build a stronger team and leave a legacy for the students coming up behind them.

Elin: So, the title is the hook, but the club is the sustainability?

Jerry: Exactly! The individual drive for titles gets people in the door, but the passion for the school and the younger students is what keeps the project growing every year.

Closing Thoughts

Building a robot arm in a controlled lab is one thing; making sure it actually works in a classroom 3,000 kilometers away is a completely different challenge. My talk with Jerry helped ground the Robot Arm Project in reality. We’re building a curriculum that respects local constraints to ensure this technology stays functional long after we leave.