Key Accomplishments: STEM Education
As featured in Qualcomm's 2020 Corporate Responsibility Report
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is the foundation for everything we do. It supports the brainpower behind the breakthrough technologies and inventions we bring to life.
As technology leaders and a company of inventors, we are committed to providing future innovators with the skills and knowledge to solve global challenges. In the last five years, Qualcomm and the Qualcomm Foundation have given over $30 million to STEM programs globally, funded more than 160 STEM organizations, fostered interest in STEM in 41 countries, and inspired more than 700,000 students to join the next generation of inventors.
We invest in STEM initiatives that:
- Help bridge the STEM skills gap among students globally
- Build STEM capacity among teachers and educators
- Engage women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields
- Leverage our employees as STEM ambassadors in our communities
Reporting on the successes of our 2020 Corporate Responsibility Goals Introducing our
2020 Goal: Enhance and expand the talent pipeline in the technology industry by engaging students and other key stakeholders in our scalable STEM education initiatives.
Successes:
- Since its inception, our homegrown STEM Education Program, the Thinkabit Lab, has inspired over 78,000 students across the U.S. to become the next generation of inventors. Through collaborations with different organizations, we have a network of 16 Thinkabit Lab sites and 30 trained instructors at schools, universities, and libraries in five states nationwide. Even with COVID-19 in 2020, we expanded our summer program and reached 325 percent more students in part due to implementing our invention-based camps in a remote learning environment.
- Our strategic collaboration with FIRST™ has grown over the last five years to include program and regional support in eight countries, support of teams in underserved communities, support of FIRST Championship and tech integration of our Snapdragon processor in the FIRST Tech Challenge program. These efforts combined have reached over 500,000 students in the last five years.
- Qualcomm’s continuing collaboration with the Shanghai Adream Charitable Foundation trains teachers and educators in China to implement STEM curriculum and activities in schools and community centers. By end of 2020, 187 schools and 10 community centers implemented “STEM & Maker” courses benefiting around 40,000 students aged from 10 to 15.
- Our Qualcomm Aqriti™ program has made big strides in improving access and exposure to quality STEM education at hundreds of schools in India with a key focus on engaging young girls in STEM. Since its inception, Aqriti has impacted more than 56,000 children and more than 2,200 teachers across 278 schools in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Chennai.
Introducing our 2025 Corporate Responsibility Goals
2025 Goal: Continue to foster the next generation of innovators by inspiring 1.5 million students and teachers across the globe through our strategic STEM initiatives: our homegrown Thinkabit Lab, our collaboration with FIRST and our STEM community partnerships.
To learn how Qualcomm is inspiring the next generation of innovators to develop the workforce in technology-related careers, click here
To learn more about Qualcomm’s 2025 goals and ESG performance in 2020, access the full report here
