"You're welcome to come over to
visit, have fun and stay. Room HF2, Tuesdays after school."
"From the outset -
Dr. Shin, BWSI & Mrs. Hale, gave us encouragement, vital support, that helped shape our team & vision..."
"One key differentiator: our members learn practical & hireable application skills, using advanced research
grade materials, year round from MIT."
"ACRT counters STEM underrepresentation in our area, filling the skills gap & providing students with experience in
cutting-edge technologies."
"...We can imagine the power of this opportunity, for every town & state throughout the nation."
"Most family members don't know much about autonomous tech,
just that we are excited about being involved in something great."
ACRT is a student initiative working in collaboration with MIT's Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI) to study, build, race and modify autonomous vehicles.
ACRT fills a void in advanced after-hours STEM opportunities for public schools in the Sacramento region.
Our team is entirely operated by students
and does not receive public funds.
Founded in 2018 by CO student Alex Towfigh, as a local startup initiative to explore autonomous vehicle technologies. Our team has a vision to help propagate BWSI's middle and high school learning model, by integrating STEM into a community service mission.
We're passionate about our work, eager to help students like ourselves, break "dead zone" barriers to access quality STEM programs. We believe that given the chance to access our learning tools, many more youth will transform how they see science and engineering in their future.
ACRT is building alliances to with schools, companies and colleges to become launch platforms for advanced STEM, using BWSI's ready made programs.
BWSI is still the only internationally recognized STEM program deploying a proven, powerful autonomous vehicle platform (RACECAR) ideal for research and education.
BWSI's program includes a complete course & software package, using a platform actually used on MIT's campus.
The founding seed proposal, was to extend BWSI's RACECAR program, as a year round after-school team
at CO.
In the absence of local specialized expertise, Dr. Robert Shin, BWSI founder and his team agreed to mentor ACRT, from 3000 miles away. We started an extraordinary collaboration, one that our members share with great pride.
On campus, Mrs. Melissa Hale an award winning STEM robotics teacher, agreed to become our campus advisor and share her classroom after hours. Mrs. Hale has made every possible effort to help and support us. Our team has grown stronger, after unexpected and tough challenges.
We'll always remember kind, thoughtful, professional consideration afforded by Dr. Shin, BWSI and Mrs.Hale.
ACRT is a small STEM island with a lot going on - the only one between here and Silicon Valley. Join us.