Founders: Tony Norman and Bob Mimlitch
VEX Robotics
The mission of VEX is to “create tools that educators and ventures will use to shape the learners of today into the problem-solving leaders of tomorrow.” VEX is striving to meet the need for innovators, thinkers and problem solvers. It embraces all facets of STEM education, through the robotics lens. They want students to learn how fun it can be to solve challenging problems through the construction of a robot. Vex makes robots that are used for education and for competition. VEX has been in more than 60 countries and is continuing to grow. It is a highly engaging and rewarding educational technology. Their website highlights how many countries, schools, etc. that it has been involved in. VEX has also won numerous awards throughout the years, including the best Educational Toy in 2016, holding the Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Robotics Competition.
Founders:
Tony Norman is an Electrical Engineer and Bob Mimlitch is a Mechanical engineer. They met early in their careers and discovered that they both had the same beliefs about “the right way to do things” during the problem-solving process. Both men had a passion for teaching robotics. They started their company in a garage and eventually became a global company. The started Innovation First. They are passionate about STEM mentorship and robotics and problem-solving.
Their goal is to develop critical thinkers and problem solvers and they understand that in order to do this they need to have good people working with them. They indicate on their website their greatest assets aren’t motors or gears- they’re people. They love to see people get excited about learning, especially about STEM and they want to use that motivation to build their company.
Websites:
https://www.vexrobotics.com/about-us
https://www.vexrobotics.com/about-us/our-story
https://www.innovationfirst.com/about/
