EPP alum Tom Lauwers creating online resources for K-12 students

Around the world, 9 out of every 10 children are out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic — leaving parents and educators scrambling to transform face-to-face interactions to online learning via screens and keyboards. 

Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Tom Lauwers (E 2003, CS 2006, 2010) saw the unprecedented challenge and spurred his company Birdbrain Technologies to action. Since 2010, Tom has lead a team of roboticists and educators who strive to cultivate creativity and computational thinking in elementary and secondary students with their interactive products. 

Working at breakneck pace, the edtech company — focused on computer science and robotics learning for all K-12 students — created and posted a trove of free tutorials, courses, remotely programmable robots and a schedule of live, online classes. 

“I want students to feel empowered to believe that they can create with technology and be more than consumers of digital media.” 

Tom credits his motivation and success to his Tartan connections, which were integral to starting and building his company —a vast alumni network filled with leaders of successful spin-offs, the CREATE Lab, the Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation and invaluable advice from world-renowned faculty and staff. 

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