Episode 14: Tech Gladiators: Engineering the Next Generation with Zeo Infinite Robotics

00:06

Cool. Thank you so much for joining us, Thomas, on Beyond Giving, the best nonprofit  podcast on the Boost Network sponsored by nonprofits HQ.  I’m super excited to talk, to dig into Zeo Infinite Robotics, learn kind of about your background, what it is that you’re working on and that sort of thing.  Thank you for having me, man.  So  let’s kind of just start with an introduction, Thomas. Who are you and how did your path lead to this organization? Oh, man. Who am I?

00:35

So my name is Thomas James. I was born here in San Antonio, but I was raised in a little small town called Beaford, South Carolina. It’s kind like on the border of South Carolina and Georgia. So my background is more of like engineering design. So I’m more into that, but I really did want to go the robotics route, but a lot of life situations happened.

01:04

Especially with my mom being sick and everything.  yeah. Okay, so then South Carolina to Texas. How did that happen?  Oh, so  to me, South Carolina, well, San Antonio is my actual hometown,  but South Carolina is more where I raised. So those are the only two  places I’ve ever known.  Okay, got you. And then so you said you had kind of an engineering background.  Yeah. What did that look like?  So I started out…

01:34

um At  a community college called the Technical College of the Lowcountry  in South Carolina,  in Buford, South Carolina.  So all they had at the time was like HVAC or CAD.  So I went the CAD route.  Okay, and so like what type of stuff were you designing on CAD?  Oh, so basically it  was broken down to three. So was architectural, civil, and mechanical. didn’t get basic.

02:03

Gotcha. Okay. I have a little bit of CAD exposure because we have these like these kiosks that we deploy to our customer events. Yeah. And so I jumped in the CAD software and learned how to use it to kind of design them. And that was like a lot of fun,  but  experiencing or learning new skills, building cool stuff. That’s kind of the  core of what you’re building with Zio Infinite Robotics, right? Oh yeah. Can you kind of tell us a little bit about what your organization is and what it is that you guys are actually doing? So basically my organization is to help kids.

02:33

So it might be,  so I’m probably talking about the next question too, probably.  So basically, how I started with with CO Infinite Robotics, actually going back to First Robotics. But actually going back to one of my business  mentors, um Ruben  from the SBDC. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah, because he was the one that was like,

03:03

Oh, you know, just try out certain organizations, volunteer.  Not the time, you’re not really, I wasn’t really thinking that, but  after I got that job for uh first being a AmeriCorps VISTA, it started to come around a little bit.  I’m doing the  thing that Ruben told me  I should do, you know?  And even there was another mentor too, and  I didn’t score.

03:32

Yeah, there’s a mentor from Skor, went down  to the library and he said it’s that same thing. So,  yeah. And so what, like, so describe in like a couple of sentences, what is Zio Infinite Robotics? What is the mission? So the mission is to basically just help the next future  engineers, uh scientists, STEM leaders.

04:01

So that’s what I want to do. But help them do what? So are you introducing people to robotics as a STEM program? Or are you bringing the program to schools? Like, is the outcome? If someone goes through the programs that you offer, what’s the outcome of that? So basically, it’s just bringing the schools. But ultimately, I just want them to have a first shot at having a engineering job.

04:30

Because, I mean, to me, I know how to engineer and feel kind of hard. You got to have a bachelor’s degree. And sometimes it’s kind of hard when you have like an associate’s degree or a certificate. So it’s kind of hard. Okay. So you’re introducing students. What kind of students? So are these like elementary school kids or high school or are these college students? where do you typically work? So right now, I see…

04:59

told me, as you asked me earlier, like what my goal is for right now. It’s just, right now I’m just doing middle school, high school, college. I think they’re kind of easy to like, know, top teeth. And so what kind of type of like, so you’re creating these STEM programs that you’re bringing to middle and high school students, right? What are you actually doing? Are these like robotic champion or challenges? Are these just learning the…

05:28

fundamentals of robotics, like what are the actual programs? So  the one that I’m working on, the Tech Gladiator Challenge as I call it, or a T- Tech Gladiator, that sounds fun. Yeah, TGC as I call it. uh So basically,  I’m kind of going the manufacturing route, like for them to learn the manufacturing side,  because that, to me, like  when it comes to like San Antonio, I feel like that doesn’t get.

05:55

talked about as much as the other field. this is not like like actually producing and  building these robots. Yeah. For what is the gladiator challenge for those that don’t know? So basically it just uh building robots, but also competing a little bit. Yeah. It’s like robotic robot wars essentially like fighting battle challenges. I think pretty  awesome. And so

06:19

What you’re teaching in these programs  are these kind of how to build, how to design and build these defensible robots for these challenges. Yeah, yeah. Very cool. I mean, to me, I always think like whether it’s BattleBots or FURZ or VEX, there’s always uh art in the strategy. Yep, absolutely.  And so  what  are the first few days of this program look like? So if I come in as a middle school student or a high school student,  right, um

06:46

and I don’t have exposure to this before, right? That’s why your program is so critical.  What is it that I can expect to learn immediately? And when do I actually get to start building these kick-ass robots?  Oh, man. Well, I’m trying to go for the workshops so people can  learn how to build it,  like what goes into it, because there’s a of math, science, and you gotta learn everything about it. It’s not just hardware either, it’s software. Yeah, software, yeah.

07:15

Because you just don’t want to build it straight away. Then  there’s some mechanical error, troubleshoot error. And  I’d rather give kids that can’t  first, for like me the first few months and then in the last few months,  competition season. Yep. That’s awesome.  And so like where  are you currently working with any school districts  or like where do you currently  have these programs?  Well, right now I don’t have any school districts, but I’m

07:43

trying to go for the north side and the northeast side since I’m  closer to that area right now.  then  eventually expand more into the other districts. Right, okay nice. And so you’re kind of focused on the San Antonio area specifically? Yeah. Awesome.  And so you’re taking these programs into the schools and you’re teaching them how to build these robots.  Are they taking the robots they build and submitting those to a challenge or are they fighting?

08:09

uh other teams in the area. Like what does that actually look like?  Oh man. um So to me,  I just think, you know, they just, I wouldn’t say submit the robots because the robots are there,  but you know, just challenging other,  other teams. Okay. Awesome. And so they’ll just be coordinated like  battles between the different school districts or the different schools in the district. Yeah. Yeah. very cool.  And so

08:36

What are some of the challenges of programs like this? I know when you approach different school districts, they’re all on different schedules. They all have these different requirements that you have to hoops you jump through to get programs in. And then one of the big challenges or the big friction points also usually comes down to funding. How do you pay for the supplies? Building robots can be somewhat inexpensive or incredibly expensive. How do you close those gaps and how do you actually enter into a district?

09:05

To me, I just think the grants and who your suppliers are, I think that’s a big thing. also there’s different resources that goes into it too. So you can do some things to reduce the cost for the materials and the supplies that you need to actually build it. But then you’ve got these other hard costs. You’ve got the hard costs of the materials, but then also you’ve got costs like time and people to run the programs.

09:34

I didn’t travel and yeah. Yep, definitely. And so you’re funded mostly through grants right now? Yeah. And so when you bring a program to a school, um what is the school’s kind of part in that? But like logistically, right? So like, ah I have this program, are you providing curriculum and guidance? Are you providing the actual facilitation of these workshops and the building sessions? Like, what does the school provide? What do you provide?

10:02

So basically, I have kind of come up with a curriculum. That’s I’ve been working on for like the past half year. So curriculum for like elementary, middle, high school, college teams. So and then also the workshops. I think the workshops are going to be really, really helpful. Nice. OK, cool. Awesome. Now kind of changing gears a little bit.

10:27

Why did you decide you wanted to do this? Like of all the things you could do with your engineering background in the world, why did you decide you wanted to start a nonprofit one, which is already hard, and then teach robotics to children through school districts? Like why is this your mission? Well, okay, so my passion is like no combat robotics, but what really sparked my passion was when I was at AmeriCorps Vista for first. Okay. And throughout the whole year,

10:57

you know, it started to hit me that, you know,  going into schools and helping kids,  you know, get the resources and… Well, that’s  such a critical time too, as students are developing to teach these skills, right? Because  even if a student doesn’t pursue robotics as a career, the things that you’ll learn about slicing problems, about strategic thinking, about planning…

11:20

are applicable to any industry, right?  So you don’t have to necessarily go into robotics in order to get value from this. And that stage,  in Phoenix, we started the code clubs.  And I was deeply involved with that. we had like,  every week, the students would meet at one of the library branches,  and they would learn to write code, to build stuff. Software engineering is my background.  And we had  seven-year-olds writing.

11:48

uh Objective C and iOS apps, right? We had like these children  building these really amazing things. We had some working on some robotics stuff  and that’s such a critical time to start building those skills because  even if they never go into anything technical in their career, they now have that ability to think about problems logically, to think in different ways, to accept feedback from different  problems. So that’s really cool.  And I think that’s a good time to introduce.

12:16

programs like this is in school. Oh yeah. And I mean, used to, about the codes, like  I experienced that when I used to volunteer for iCode a while back. So like I saw kids and it was creating their own video games and I thought that was cool.  And also the Lego Sumo Robotics.  Actually I liked that too. It’s something about that that speaks like a Japanese culture thing that I sort of like. So.

12:44

Yeah, I thought kind of incorporating that to you a little bit. Nice.  And OK, cool. So then  you  are an engineer by trade. You’ve started this nonprofit. What are some of the interesting things that you learned during this process that you didn’t like? What are some of the surprise?  I guess lessons that you’ve learned while you were starting Zio Infinite Robotics. um Man, that definitely the business side of stuff. Yeah, because the business side like.

13:13

I’m just learning so much right now. It’s like I’m starting out and I was like, oh man, I didn’t know this. then  it has me thinking and most of the time,  and I like that. It challenges me a lot.  like, I might be thinking about the whole day and just be like, okay, I’m going to attack this. then,  and then if there’s another question, I’m like, okay, I don’t know  how to answer this one, but I want to figure out the best way to like, like answer it.  Absolutely.

13:43

And that brings up such an important point, Everybody that starts a nonprofit are almost always focused on the vision on the mission, which is so important, right? What change are we creating in the community? What impact are we creating? So important. But what a lot of people often don’t realize is that you kind of need that business side as well to keep the organization compliant, to keep it growing, to keep it moving forward, right? And those two really go hand in hand.

14:09

Like it’s no surprise that that was one of the kind of  lessons that, you know, everybody who starts a nonprofit organization kind of learns  and goes through. um So what’s kind of, uh what’s happening now with Zio right now? Where are you now and what is it that you’re kind of looking for? So right now I’m looking for people that want to be on the board of directors and- To your board members? Yeah. So I just want people that challenge, for me, challenges  me to be-

14:38

a better founder, a better leader. I might not know everything, but I want to know as much as I can. If anybody has knowledge that I don’t know about, I welcome it. So you’re recruiting board members right now to help kind of govern and guide the organization. What are you looking for in a board member? So if there’s somebody who thinks maybe they have the right background, whether it’s on the business side or in robotics on the hard technical side,

15:08

that might be interested in helping out. What are you kind of looking for in an ideal board member? Oh, for me, I just think people that’s knowledgeable in certain areas that I’m weakest in, because I’m not going to lie to anybody, I’m pretty weak in finances. I know how to save money, but as far as like, you know, know what to like. So you need a treasurer for sure. Yeah, yeah, treasurer for sure. Nice.

15:36

Yeah, and that actually brings up an interesting point too. A lot of people when they start something, whether it’s a for-profit company or a nonprofit organization,  a lot of people think they have to know everything and they’re responsible to know how every single part of the organization works. And I really like that. You’re 100%. You’re genuine. You’re like, don’t know everything, but I need to surround myself with people who compliment my weaknesses, right? Who can help move the organization forward and can help guide me as uh a founder, as a change maker. That’s pretty cool.

16:06

You’re building kind of oh your organization now. You’re building your board of directors.  You’re building your curriculum. What’s kind of next? What is happening once you get everything established? What’s your first like, here we are. We’re here in the world now. This is what we do. I really want to start to like season watch like  next school year.  That way, like, you know, when competition season comes around, it’s, you know, January through April, April. So, so yeah.

16:35

So like the first few months, know, probably gonna be workshops and you know, how to build robots and kits and all that stuff. And you know, just getting grants, you know, and researching together for schools. So. Yep, definitely. And so does your program compliment any existing problems? So I know like the Comal School District, they have a competition robotics program already. So can your program…

17:01

kind of compliment that and add additional value around that? Or are you looking for schools that don’t have anything and your program kind of first introduces that? I’m kind of thinking the second one where, you know, if they don’t have much,  like, like I go back to my, I call it my second hometown in Buford, South Carolina.  I  kind of learned that first didn’t like expand in my area. So I was like,  oh, that’s why I haven’t.

17:31

That’s why there wasn’t no robotics program when I was growing up. So, I mean, now I can probably introduce something like that. you know, shout out to my sister. yeah, my sister always telling me like, hey, you know, you should go to the Buford County School District and introduce some of that to the kids. was like, oh, okay. Yeah. And like, I know here in San Antonio specifically,

17:59

Schools on the South side could actually really use this type of thing, right? Because funding is tight. It’s really hard. You don’t have access necessarily to a lot of these like high tech or hard tech programs.  I think like a program like this could be pretty cool if it teaches the concepts of robotics, the foundations of design of planning, and then you get to, you know,  battle robots, like fight  robots. That’s even cooler. That is cool. Yeah, that works. Yeah, that’s pretty cool. So

18:29

Then as you’re kind of going through and planning this and establishing your team, right?  What are some of the things that  are  like are most important to your organization right now? So you mentioned you’re recruiting board of directors, right? But you also mentioned things like you’re building your curriculum, right? You’re looking for connections at different schools to introduce these programs, right? So what are the like maybe top three most important things for you right now?  Definitely uh sponsors,  sponsor for sure.

18:58

Um, I didn’t get in like a certain number of teams because I don’t want to start like big and have like 500 teams and not knowing how to like manage all 500 teams or, or some, or school districts, like, you know, having struggles with that. Like for me, uh, like I’d rather start off with a hundred and just go from there. Okay. So, um, so right now the most important things.

19:25

are kind of introductions to those school districts  and sponsors. are people to help kind of fund the different programs and fund all the things you need, right? Yeah. Okay, awesome. What  is one important thing,  like we kind of talked a little bit about why robotics is important and how it applies to, it’s applicable to other career paths as well. But what would you say is the most important uh aspect of  designing these robots, building them and  like whether that be teamwork, whether that be the hard skills of learning?

19:53

a CAD, like what is the most important thing there? oh Definitely teamwork because teamwork makes the dream work.  As cliche as that saying is, absolutely. Teamwork is  the most important thing that you can do in anything, right? Oh, yeah. And so how does robotics, how does this program teach teamwork and how does it teach students to kind of embody that in what they do moving forward? Well, to me, I just think it just goes back to problem solving because  like  one kid might

20:23

might know something, but another kid might have a different approach to how they want to build or design a robot. And it also goes to strategy. Like say, like, if it’s in an educational setting, like, a robot might have one way of doing stuff, but, you know, another robot might have another way of doing stuff. And it kind of like, like, to, like, you know, we both might want the same thing, but might have two different approaches.

20:52

Exactly. Go back to being there. Exactly. And you know, that’s why we work in teams too, right? We all have a different background, different experience, different opinion. And as long as we stay biased toward action, we put all that together and find the best path forward for us at the time, the most ideal at the time. May not be the perfect path, but it’s the path that moves us forward based on the information that we have now. And I think that’s why teamwork is super important. In the case of like my company, right, I  have a very, very high risk tolerance.

21:20

So if I want to do something, I’m like, let’s do it. If we break something important, we can fix it later. Like let’s move fast and break shit, right?  A  lot of our other team  is a little more tame in that area. So it balances well, right? We might have a conversation and after like a five minute conversation, I’m like, let’s pull this trigger and completely change our business model. Let’s do it, right? And the rest of the team’s like, well,  maybe we should do a little bit of validation of that. Maybe we should ask our customers what they want, know, these things like that. And so.

21:48

Teamwork really helps you slice things properly and progress towards that common goal and the best path forward, right? Would you agree with that? I agree with that. I’m kind of like you, like, I don’t know, I would do something and then I would ask other people like, hey, what do you think about this? And then I would slow it down a little bit. Definitely. yeah, and so teamwork being the most important thing. So what comes after teamwork?

22:14

So what is the next most important skill that robotics teaches students?  Well,  I know robotics has many disciplines like electrical, electronics, mechatronics, CAD. I’m probably missing a few, but mechanical for sure. So like for me, know, CAD is very important because, you know, I  actually got a degree in that back in South Carolina and  there’s a lot of math involved.

22:42

Like when it comes to like building a house or  building like this table right here or you  know, stuff like that. The first design that I did for our kiosks, our event kiosks,  one of the  parts that attached was about three millimeters off.  And  I was just learning to design CAD, right? It wasn’t my background.  It’s not what I did, right? I was learning this.

23:06

but we got all the parts the manufacturer created and we went to assemble and it was about three millimeters off, which was just enough gap that it didn’t attach,  right?  And so like  lots of math, lots of  forethought and planning that goes into that. And so I think those are probably really good skills, but we got teamwork, we’ve got these technical skills and all of this helps create this well-rounded education, right? Because I think what your programs do is they compliment or they add to

23:33

the education that we currently have, all these math and writing and all these other skills and traditional learning, right? They add real hard technical  skill sets and  the way you think about things that allows you to think of students to think about things differently and learn how to approach things in different ways, which I think  rounds out the education, right? Oh yeah. And also too,  like what I learned about BattleBots 2 is like  when it comes down to like,  I used to watch videos for how

24:03

people named their robots and I’m like, oh, there’s some history behind it.  There could be a history uh like that, like when they talk about, oh, okay, there’s a gladiator robot or the name gladiator somewhere in there. And I’m like,  oh, okay, that goes back to like, you know,  the Roman times or whatever. Yeah, I’m like, oh, there’s history around that. So you’re…

24:26

Combative robotics is kind of your hobby, like is your passion. Yeah, it’s my passion. And so what’s the coolest robot that you’ve ever built and what did you name that robot?  Well, right now,  I’m currently going to build like a robot. uh Well, I’m still naming, trying to figure out the name. OK. But I know it’s going to be something Japanese like because  I’m  something about Japanese culture kind of, I kind of liked.  Yeah. So yeah. There’s a lot that we can learn from Japanese culture and I think a lot that

24:56

that applies directly to robotics and to battle competitions, right? Oh, yeah. So um OK, awesome.  And so  then  in terms of what you need for your organization, you talked about board of directors. Do you need anything in terms of volunteers, in terms of uh actually executing  these programs in the schools? Yep.  Oh, yeah, Oh, yeah. ah

25:22

We’re at those early stage building blocks of your organization, which is such a fun time, but also so many different things happening at once to coordinate and really execute well. And so you need pretty much everything right now? Pretty much. And also, I want to add, too, the thing I was thinking about with elementary school, kids, I’m thinking of, well, I don’t know if people notice in the anime world.

25:52

but the Gumbla building or Gundam building. What is it?  They call it uh Gumbla, but  I know it as Gundam.  Okay, what is it?  So basically it’s just like model building.  It’s like building a toy robot,  but there’s a lot of stuff that goes into it. You gotta make sure the piece of fit. uh

26:22

like, you know, spraying it, coating it. I’ve seen a lot of videos about that too and I was like, man, the whole Gundam building changed a lot where it not just snap rolling. It’s like, got to have a hobby knife and you got to have this kind of coating of paint or whatever. And you got to make sure that the head is straight and the body is straight. I don’t like, I didn’t got to model it like in a certain way like this or whatever. I was like,

26:50

Okay, that seems cool. So those younger grades, it’s more about kind of getting your feet wet, being introduced. You’re not necessarily in, you know, third grade building a robot that’s going to compete in a battle. Nah. You’re kind of learning, you know, with this model building and like learning the concepts of that. So when you’re upper grades,  like your high school grades, that’s when you’re probably actually building to compete, that sort of thing. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I the Gunpla building.  After I learned that from like the Bandai because I followed them and…

27:20

I watched this for every Gundam series  you can think of and I was like,  oh, okay. So you’re kind of a robotics nerd at heart.  Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s where I look up at home.  I’m like, oh, okay. That’s awesome. Pretty cool.  And then so  what, where can the community learn more about what you’re doing and how they can get involved with your organization?  Oh man.  So.

27:48

I have a LinkedIn account,  CO Infinite Robotics,  or you can  get in touch with me, Thomas James. And same thing with Instagram, CO Infinite Robotics.  And  also I have  a Facebook page, CO Infinite Robotics, and then I have a Facebook group  with the  same thing. then I kind of like on  every social media. OK, awesome.

28:15

And we’ll include those links in the show notes  so the audience can kind of click through and reach out to you and  offer your support. uh Is there anything else additionally that you’d like to add kind of to the episode about your organization? What’s like? I don’t have much else, but yeah, you can join my  organization. I welcome it.  I hope you the best way I can. That’s sort of the thing.  Amazing. Awesome. And we’ve probably got some introductions that we can make to different schools.

28:43

districts  that I’m involved in and that,  you know, the rest of our crew is kind of involved in  to help with that as well. So  thank you so much for coming on the show. This was a great conversation. I’m really excited to follow  Zeo Infinite Robotics and see the kind of impact that you create in the community. All right. Thank you, man.