The IDEAS² Center led two impactful STEM outreach initiatives in June. On June 27–28, the Center participated in STEM Go Pro Day 2025 at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston as part of Tech Fest Live. Led by UH Co-Is Drs. Olga Bannova and Zheng Chen, IDEAS² students engaged hundreds of high school students with interactive demonstrations on soft robotics and rover control, fostering hands-on learning and excitement for engineering.
Additionally, the Center hosted two K–12 teachers, Stephanie Galloway (Spring ISD) and Lewis Moore (Cypress-Fairbanks ISD), for a one-month pilot Research Experience for Teachers (RET). The teachers explored demonstrations of shape memory alloy actuators and soft grippers, participated in research presentations, and began developing classroom modules aligned with the Center’s research themes.