Lead Mechatronics Engineer Douglas Hutchings attended and represented Squishy Robotics at Fire-Rescue International 2022. The multi-day FRI conference and expo sponsored by theInternational Association of Fire Chiefs(IAFC) drew thousands of attendees to the Henry L. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas late last month.
“The IAFC is an international network of fire chiefs and emergency agency and department officers,” said Hutchings. “This conference was an opportunity to meet and show our 4-GasPLUS sensor robots to a lot of the decision makers—especially chiefs and deputy chiefs—among the first responder community in attendance.” Hutchings manned a Squishy Robotics table in the exhibit hall and estimates that he spoke with approximately 150 attendees over the three-day conference. Hutchings also gave a short talk, “Squishy Robotics: Rapidly Deployable Sensors for Initial Assessment,” on the last day of the conference.
“Getting to talk to first responders is one of the best parts of my job,” Hutchings stated. “Of course, I enjoy showing off our robots, but more importantly, I get to hear what customers and potential customers need. This helps us to prioritize enhancements and new features for our products.”
Hutchings added that a high point of his time in Texas was attending some of the talks that were part of the conference’s Officer Development Program. “These talks are essentially continuing professional education opportunities for fire chiefs and featured prominent fire department commanders and experts in emergency response. It was a wonderful opportunity to listen and learn from the experts who responded to the large-scalegas leaks in Merrimack Valley, Massachusetts(near Andover) and to theChamplain Towers Southcondominium collapse in Surfside, Florida.”
Agogino Examines Importance of Engineering Impacts on Society
Squishy Robotics CEO Dr. Alice Agogino was one of the speakers for theNational Academy of Engineering's (NAE) “Symposium on Extraordinary Engineering Impacts on Society.” This virtual symposium was held August 18 and 19. Agogino’s session focused on the numerous and varied ways thatNational Science Foundation(NSF) funding of small business innovation research and industry-university collaboration has helped foster inventions, innovations, and advancements.
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