Friday, August 19:
ProjectMQ (E-Sports) & FUNducation (STEAM Education) (Seminole)
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Appearing virtually (his wife was about to give birth!), Mr. Marcus Howard (CEO of Project MQ), one of Tampa Bay’s leading experts in E-Sports and gaming, opened the afternoon session with a discussion about how gaming and E-Sports can play a key role in attracting students to STEM education. He spoke about how his team uses E-Sports to engage under-represented youth to realize that gaming is more than just competition; in fact, it can inspire students to pursue STEM studies and careers in coding, design, applied mathematics and engineering. Marcus also provided three hard copies of his groundbreaking 2022 guidebook to E-Sports, and a link to the electronic version for the Tech Talent group.
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Once the interaction with Marcus concluded, STEAM advocate and FUNducation, Inc. founder Ms. Neirda Thompson-Pemberton talked about her organization and how she provides opportunities for students in engineering, coding, robotics, cybersecurity, mathematics. Then she got everyone ready for a gaming tournament and trained for some augmented reality competition.
HADO is a physical E-Sport using Augmented Reality (AR), which turns the environment around you into a digital interface by placing virtual objects in the real world, in real-time! Headsets on, and virtual shields at the ready, the group enjoyed a lot of laughter and a little AR competition to end the formal part of their mission. |
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At the end of the day, the Tech Talent group took one last visit to the Gulf beaches and enjoyed one more sunset before readying themselves for the return trip home.