Regional Innovation Hub inspires passion for technology, education
The Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub is working to “make the impossible possible” when it comes to new ideas and products, according to its CEO and lead maker, Chris Jones.
“For those who don’t know the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, it’s a nonprofit and our mission is we’re completely dedicated to educating and inspiring a community of creatives, technologists, entrepreneurs, to be the makers of the future,” Jones told a group of Arkansas educators gathered for the 25th annual Hot Springs Technology Institute conference Thursday.
“Our vision is that we make the impossible possible. So for us, if you come in with an idea, we want to help you turn that idea into a product. If you have a product, we want to help you turn that product into a business.”
Jones, a Pine Bluff native and graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta and MIT in Cambridge, Mass., stressed family and education were of “critical importance” to his success.
“It was always instilled in me that you have to get as much education as you can so from an early age I thoroughly enjoyed science and engineering, I loved taking things apart, and I loved nature,” he said. “And I decided at a young age that I wanted to be an astronaut and the path that I wanted to take to do that was through Morehouse College. I was blessed to be able to go to Morehouse on a full scholarship to NASA and mentored under an astronaut which was great. I studied physics and mathematics.”
Jones said in particular when he attended MIT, he had a constant feeling of self-doubt he had to learn to overcome. When teachers are interacting with students, there are likely going to be times those students feel a similar way, he said. For that reason, he shared his “four important implications” to help students reach their potential.
“One is that our new economy requires a new workforce. The new workforce needs new knowledge, new skills, new approaches,” he said.
“The other is that some places are skipping the grid. … In developing countries, they’re skipping the grid and going directly to cellphone technology, wireless technology. We can skip the development of an infrastructure and grid and create innovation that has never been created.”
The third and fourth implications, Jones said, are that growing talent requires looking where educators have not always looked, and meeting students where they are.
“As educators, we are going to have to open our eyes and find the student who may not be the one that would typically get identified as the most intelligent student,” he said. “We can’t focus on meeting talent where we want them to be. We have to meet talent where they actually are, wherever that is.”
In developing Arkansas’ talent pool, Jones said there are two ways the Innovation Hub is wanting to partner with educators through STEM Arkansas and the STEAM Roller.
“We are trying to break down barriers and expose students — and when I say students I mean people from 8 to 80 years old — who have not been exposed to those things. If I had not been exposed to the things that I had been exposed to as a young child, I never would have been to MIT,” Jones said.
“For STEM Arkansas, we need educators as our partners … it’s a program that brings science and engineering to a particular place, often places that are far away from your normal locales of innovation. We can bring 100 students together on a Saturday, give them that hands-on experience and let them take that experience back with them. It supplements what they learn in school.”
The STEAM Roller is a mobile Innovation Hub, he said, which will officially launch this fall. The STEAM Roller has tools for 3D printing, laser cutting, screen printing and ceramics.
“Not everyone in the state of Arkansas can get to North Little Rock. In fact, there are several schools who for various reasons cannot make a field trip so we decided if they can’t come to us, why can’t we go to them? We developed the STEAM Roller,” Jones said.
“With the STEAM Roller what we do is we put the tools on carts, put the carts on the trailer, take it to the school, roll the carts into the classroom and actually teach students. Depending on the length of the class that we give, we may teach the concept and then we’ve actually done the work. We do let them do their own screen printing where they can make the T-shirts.”
Currently, Jones said there is no cost for schools bringing the STEAM Roller to their campus; however, there are limited funds to get it out across the state right now and the Innovation Hub is working to find additional funding.