“What a great day for Lansing,” said Mayor Virg Bernero about the Information Technology Empowerment Center’s (ITEC) TechTransport Bus Roll-Out on Tuesday, November 18th.
The roll-out provided attendees an opportunity to tour TechTransport, a bus that is being transformed into a mobile learning lab, in a partnership with Lansing Community College. Attendees were able to see the completed exterior of the bus as well as a vision of the completed bus, viewed through Oculus Virtual Reality goggles.
Over seventy community members and leaders gathered at the Foster Community Center to see TechTransport and learn more about the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs that will be offered on the bus. Attendees saw demonstrations of a 3-D printer, one of the pieces of equipment that will be available for student use on the bus. ITEC students showed off robots they had built and programmed.
The roll-out also recognized the R.E. Olds Foundation and the Joe D. Pentecost Foundation, who collectively have donated $75,000 towards renovating the 40-foot motor coach, donated by Dean Transportation, into a mobile learning lab. ITEC expects to serve 2,500 individuals annually through TechTransport, starting in July 2015. TechTransport will feature an interactive, high impact space launch and exploration platform, where students learn how to blast into space, explore other worlds, land their spacecraft, collect samples from the surface and return safely to earth.
Kellie Dean from Dean Transportation served as the Emcee for the event. Other speakers included Brent Knight, President LCC; Mayor Virg Bernero; Hiram Fitzgerald, MSU University Outreach and Engagement; Yvonne Caamal Canul, Superintendent, Lansing School District; Diana Tarpoff, President, R.E. Olds Foundation and Eduardo Suniga, President, ITEC Board of Directors.