Over the summer, the work of the Lubbock Regional Bomb Squad caught the attention of Frenship High School Robotics Mentor, Nancy Schunke, when she saw that they used a robot in a law enforcement situation. After the incident, she connected with a friend at the Lubbock Sheriff's Office to ask about having someone with the Bomb Squad speak to the students in the Frenship High School Robotics Team. To her surprise and delight, the bomb squad member who responded to her request was one of her former students and a Frenship graduate.
Schunke said, “it’s one of those fabulous rewards of teaching, getting to see what your students have done.”
Ryan Fillman is in his fourteenth year at the Lubbock Sheriff’s Office and is a certified bomb technician. While in high school, Fillman was a part of the Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS) team, which was similar to today’s Robotics Club. His senior year, Frenship introduced an engineering class, and he was one of the first people to take that class.
When reflecting on his time at Frenship, Fillman said, “it did a good job for what I ultimately ended up landing in. When I left high school, I didn’t think I’d do bomb stuff, but as I progressed in my career, those interests took over, and I was able to use all of the stuff I’d done in the engineering class and being in the engineering club in my career in an interesting way.”
Fillman shared about what he does with the robotics club students and demonstrated the robot he uses. Students also had the opportunity to check out some of his other equipment. Some students even got to try on his bomb suit.
Fillman explained, “in the bomb world, we have robots so that humans don’t have to go down and look at a possibly dangerous situation. We can remotely examine a suspicious object, or we can do some procedures with the robot.”
Schunke said it was great for her students to get to see a real-life application of robotics.
“Getting to see their robot and hear him talk about it, there are some of the same things that we use on our robot,” she said. “So, it really helps them realize that we’re doing something like the grownups do, so to speak.”
She also thought it was a great opportunity for her students to learn about different career paths using science.
“We talk a lot about going to college, but there are so many other ways that they can utilize what they love doing,” said Schunke.
The presentation was undoubtedly a great experience for the students, but it was also special for Fillman.
“Whenever [Schunke] contacted me, I was excited because it kind of brings things full circle. I don’t know that many people that get to come back to where they graduated high school, especially to talk about something that they’re passionate about, and I think that is super cool.”