Creator of first microprocessor inspires kids in Mississippi with FTC

When Ray Holt's FIRST LEGO League team graduated after two years in the program, he was happy to learn about another FIRST program just starting in Mississippi.

Ray, who is a retired computer scientist and STEM educator, was visiting a friend in Mississippi in 2010 when a local ministry started talking to him about the need for technical learning in the rural community of Mt. Olive, population 800.

He sympathized with the struggle and agreed to stick around and help teach extracurricular classes on Saturdays for elementary, middle and high school students.  In addition to curriculum he developed to teach the kids, he also started an FLL Team when the program was in it's pilot year in the state.  Two years later, he was still in Mt. Olive teaching and looking for more opportunities for his students.  

Ray Holt with his FTC Team, Purple Thunder

In 2012, he decided to add to his schedule and go back to college at the University of Mississippi to earn a master's degree in education.  That's when he met Mannie Lowe, the FTC Affiliate Partner for MS who was just getting the next level of FIRST off the ground.

Ray signed his kids up and FTC Team 5963, Purple Thunder, was born.

The Team, made up of students from three different high schools, across three counties, quickly got down to business and began building their robot, and their interest in STEM.

"What I enjoy most is seeing the team members actually experience the success of hard work," said Ray.  "I am always telling them that practice and hard work pays off, but until they actually experience the fruit of their efforts, they don't always know what that means."

His team got that payoff when they advanced to the FTC World Championship during their rookie year in the program.  Ray said the team was not expecting it at all and the members were overjoyed.  

"For a rural Mississippi team to participate in an international competition was almost unheard of.  Now we know rural kids can do it," he said.

In addition to his work with the students in Mt. Olive, Ray also travels across the state teaching at other schools and Mentors two additional FTC Teams.  One of these Teams is in the Mississippi Delta region.  A school administrator there told him that only one student had gone on to be an engineer in the last 15 years.

Ray hopes to change all that.

"My desire is to get them trained early and FIRST is one of my tools.  These kids are deficient in hands-on and STEM learning and I'm just doing what I can to give them a leg up," he said.

He added that he already sees a noticeable increase in his student's interest in STEM.  They know what they want to do, the career names, and their test prep scores are now above the state average. 

Recently, Ray took a leave of absence from Mississippi and traveled to his home town of Los Angeles for cancer treatment.  While he was there, he connected with Liberty Naud, the FTC Affiliate Partner, and asked if any of her Teams needed a Mentor.

Liberty, who was looking for technical mentors at the time, gladly accepted his offer and fired off an e-mail to her teams.  Within 24 hours, requests for help were pouring in.

He selected five rookie Teams to work with and found that what they really needed help with was programming.  Ray, who is credited with developing the first microprocessor, back in the 1960s for the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet, was just the person to do this.  After two to three meetings with the teams, they were up and running on their own.

"Over the month-and-a-half he was in LA, Ray drove over 600 miles from team to team," said Liberty.  "Several teams went on to win awards that they attribute to Ray's assistance and embodiment of FIRST values."

With cancer in remission and the Rookie Teams on their way to success, he headed back to Mississippi to continue his work teaching rural students there.

"FTC is a great hands-on method of teaching STEM in as close to a real-world environment as possible," he said.

Editor's note: In addition to working with students and Teams, Mannie Lowe also credits Ray with being instrumental in helping to set up FTC in the state.  Ray is also responsible for building and maintaining the Mississippi FTC website.