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Seeing is believing, and GHS students got a glimpse into many possible futures during a behind-the-scenes tour at Innovation First International (IFI) headquarters.

 

“We don’t give a lot of tours,” John V-Neun, president of IFI’s RackSolutions Division said. “In your case, we made an exception because of our relationship with Greenville High School where both our owners – Tony Norman and Bob Mimlitch  – went to school. They believe in giving back to this town, and that’s why we’ve had this relationship with your robotics team for so many years. You’re part of the family.”

 

V-Neun led students through the HEXBUG consumer robotics toys division, where they saw toys that have not yet been released on the market.

 

“Put those phones away because it takes us a lot of time and creative energy to develop these cool toys,” he said.

 

In addition to touring IFI’s three divisions – RackSolutions, VEX Robotics and HEXBUG – V-Neun and the students explored what it takes to run a successful business and be a valuable team member.

 

 “Creativity is the foundation of the job, and there are so many different areas of specialty” V-Neun said. “First is the idea. Where will it fit in the market? What is the price target? Then the industrial designers – that’s where art meets engineering. They go back and forth with the engineering team.  We’re big on testing and creating new iterations. We even test the packaging to be sure it gets to the customer intact. There are just so many components to getting it on the market.”

 

Hands shot up in the crowd of Early College High School freshmen, who are all on the engineering pathway and who will graduate with an Associate’s Degree.

 

“How do you know who has the best idea?” one asked.

 

“If you believe you have the best idea, you need to be able, to do three things,” V-Neun answered without hesitation. “One, prove it using prototyping. Two, communicate it well. And three, be comfortable for your initial idea to fail, and evolve into something better.”

 

Next stop: the warehouse

A trip to IFI’s distribution center and warehouse launched another round of Q&A:

 

Q: If you make mistakes, do you get in trouble?”

A: No – we mess up all the time. At the same time, we’re very good at what we do, and we design our systems to ensure a great customer experience. 

 

Q: How many products do you sell a year?

A: We sell millions of products to customers all over the world.

 

Q: What’s your number-one selling toy?

A: The HEXBUG nano is our number one of all time.

 

Q: What’s your busiest time of year?

A: Christmas and early spring when everyone is getting geared up for robotics competitions.

 

Q: What holds your interest after so many years as an engineer?

A: As engineers, we get to solve fun problems no one has ever solved before!

 

Lessons learned at IFI

After thanking V-Neun for his time and for answering dozens of questions, the students returned to the classroom and reflected on what they had seen.

 

“I liked the filming part,” Sherlyn Rangel said, referring to the studio where the creative team produces ads and videos. “They don’t have to explain it to someone else and hire someone else to do it. It’s cool that they take care of promoting their own products.”

 

“I think sometimes people just look at the product and don’t really look back at what went into making it,” Kaydence Roundtree said. “I found the manufacturing process really cool. I’d never seen machines like that before. I really liked the one that was pressing the steel out.”

 

“When I was in the warehouse, it made me think about all the work that went into it,” Damian Lewis said. “I like to be hands-on. I like construction and wonder about what it takes to design a skyscraper.”

 

Early College High School Chancellor Casey Chaney revisited V-Neun’s key points.

 

“Remember what he said that as engineers, we create something, then we test, create a new version, test, create another version. Never be satisfied with the first version. And know that if you believe you’ve created something worth making, you need to be able to convince other people by talking about it and writing about it. Sometimes we don’t think of engineers as being great communicators, but it’s a big part of being successful in any field.”

 

The Early College High School students will graduate with an industry certification in Solidworks Computer Aided Design (CAD) software, in addition to their Associate’s Degrees, thanks to a Dual Credit partnership with Paris Junior College.