Qualcomm® Thinkabit Lab ™ Inspiring the Next Generation of Inventors

At Qualcomm, we believe in the power of technology. For decades, our innovations have transformed entire industries, improved lives, and addressed many of society’s biggest challenges. With the world becoming increasingly connected, we have a tremendous opportunity to shape a better future. We understand that the success of our business is fundamentally connected to the well-being of our world. We focus our efforts in four key areas where we believe we can have the biggest impact — Purposeful Innovation, STEM Education, Responsible Business, and Our People.

As a company of inventors, Qualcomm cares deeply about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). It is part of who we are and the foundation for everything we do. As an R&D engine that has revolutionized the way people connect, our approach to innovation is strategic and purposeful. Through our STEM education efforts, we work to inspire the next generation of inventors and advance workforce development for STEM-related careers. Our initiatives are designed to promote and improve STEM education at all levels and to expand upon opportunities for underrepresented students.  

Our Thinkabit Lab Program inspires students of all cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds to imagine future careers in STEM by engaging them in hands-on exposure to these fields. The experience begins with a closer look at the Qualcomm® World of Work where students learn students learn about their strengths, interests, and values and how those impact their future careers. The students explore engineering and non-engineering careers available at tech companies like Qualcomm and engage in fun, hands-on engineering activities. Then, they apply their newly gained engineering skills to design a robotic invention that addresses a real-world problem. Together, the career exploration and engineering activities, demystify the innovation process by helping them understand where they might fit in the future workforce and how they could contribute to solve real-world problems using technology. Through our program we aim to show students that they can be part of inventing the wireless world of the future.

We opened the first Thinkabit Lab at our headquarters in San Diego, CA. Between 2014 and 2018, we hosted more than 14,000 middle school students from across San Diego County. In 2015, we began our efforts to expand the Thinkabit Lab program to different regions of the United States. Since then, our continued commitment to grow has led to a network of 16 National Thinkabit Lab sites in five states, including California, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina and Virginia.  Thinkabit Lab sites are located at schools, universities, libraries and other organizations to serve students of diverse backgrounds and educators across the country. All sites provide the Thinkabit Lab Program at no cost to students and their teachers. Together we have inspired over 65,000 students to be the next generation of inventors and engineers.

Hour of Code with San Diego Chapter of the Computer Science Teachers Association

Hour of Code is an international initiative to encourage students to learn to code and takes place from December 9-15th. Designed to demystify "code", the initiative aims to show that anybody can learn the basics and broaden participation in the field with a one-hour introduction to computer science. In 2019, the Hour of Code theme is #CSforgood! to showcase how computer science can be used to benefit society by highlighting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to help students learn about different global challenges and engage them to apply their coding skills to create an invention that addresses one of these challenges.

At Qualcomm, we are kicking off the Hour of Code week through our Thinkabit Lab program by hosting the monthly meeting of the San Diego Chapter of the Computer Science Teachers Association. Teachers from across San Diego will have the opportunity to get to know Qualcomm, our commitment to STEM Education, and learn about the free coding resources available on the Thinkabit Lab Learning Center 

Thinkabit Lab Learning Center 

The Thinkabit Lab also provides access to a sample of both career exploration and hands-on engineering activities for teachers and adults to use in the classroom, home, or organization.

The Learning Center, available on the Thinkabit Lab website, is open to all and provides activities that can be used independently or with a group of students.

For more information on the program or to access the learning center resources, please see www.thinkabitlab.com  
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