Kevin A. Roberts
Baxter is a big draw.
Who’s Baxter? The high-tech collaborative robot (or “cobot”) who lives at Monocle Learning Center, the newest addition to CEO Brian Rehg’s software solutions company, Blue Stingray. Rehg, whose résumé is studded with tech gigs with the Air Force, the Department of Defense, and Mastercard, grew up in Fairview Heights and had friends whose families struggled financially. He knew he wanted to introduce kids from similar backgrounds to tech. So he carved out a place for Monocle at Blue Stingray; kitted out the space on Laclede’s Landing with a bunch of tablets and, of course, Baxter; and invited aspiring techies to come learn to code. When a little girl from the organization Join Hands, in East St. Louis, took a tour of the learning center and saw the red-and-gray Bender lookalike, she told Rehg she wanted to work in the tech world. With plans to recruit some of his current pupils for jobs, Rehg says, “it seems like the more we give back, the more that comes to us.”
On the lack of diversity he saw while working in tech: There was a huge gap—a giant gap—in diversity. It was very “white guy”...with beards. There was some diversity globally but not within the States.
On the mission of Monocle Learning Center: What we’re trying to do is introduce people who don’t even know this world exists until it’s too late to tech. We’ll start out with some really basic programming, stuff you can learn on your own with a little bit of guidance.
On the differences in tech education in the region’s schools: I’ve spoken out at Parkway West, and they have a computer science department and a program for SPARK entrepreneurship. It’s not quite that way if you go to Granite City. It’s quite the opposite. It’s a librarian who’s trying to learn JavaScript.
On the need for programmers in St. Louis: The U.S. is short 450,000 programmers a year. There are plenty of people who never get introduced to the program or opportunities who could fill a lot of those slots. It would let local people stay in the community and work when we’re all short on programmers. And the benefit of starting the center is that we can start diversifying our group.
On one promising student: One young woman majoring in computer science had gone to McCluer South, so she had never done any sort of tech stuff or programming stuff—she said she was super far behind. There are three girls in her class of 30 people, and all of the guys wrote apps in high school. So we give her that leg up. I actually help her with her homework—she had to build a calculator in C++ and got stuck, so I helped her write and build it. And then I told her to sign up for all the tutoring her school offers. Now, she hasn’t really needed help with homework. She actually talks to some of the kids who come tour the center. We’re hoping that in the summer, she can intern for us.
FYI: To learn more about Monocle Learning Center, visit monocleteam.com.
