Coast business Royal Robotics expands with outback schools workshops

A teen who founded a robotics education business in high school has already made $15,000 as he prepares to fasttrack his company expansion. Read how he’ll do it here:

Royal Robotics founded by 18 year old High School graduate Jameson Harvey. Picture: Patrick Woods.

A high school graduate who started his own robotics company in 2019 has pocketed about $15,000 from the side hustle as he prepares to take his business to the outback.

Royal Robotics founder Jameson Harvey is seeking to fasttrack his business expansion with an outback tour hosting robotics workshops for schools.

The recent Chancellor State College graduate founded his company to provide robotics and engineering education for students on the Sunshine Coast and in rural and remote schools.

Working on a subcontract basis Mr Harvey has run workshops at three Sunshine Coast schools as well as at the University of the Sunshine Coast for about 200 students to-date.

The tech-smart teen also holds private courses for children and adults at the Peregian Digital Hub with his revenue to-date topping about $15,000.

From March to December, Mr Harvey will be travelling to schools across regional Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia with his new project ‘Red Dirt Robotics’ to host in-depth robotics courses and teach students essential skills for STEM-based subjects and future jobs.

“Red Dirt Robotics is all about closing the gap between the education disparity in robotics and STEM between these metropolitan areas with those in remote and regional areas where no one is going to provide this sort of service,” Mr Harvey said.

18 Year Old High School graduate Jameson Harvey, founder of Royal Robotics. Picture: Patrick Woods.

“There’s thousands of kids across Australia who are missing out on these key opportunities and learning these foundation skills early on and to provide the future security that everyone needs this gap needs to be filled.

“With my [school-based] workshops I try to base them around different competitions that kids can participate in through their schools so when they’re in the workshop it actually gives the kids a physical application to what they’re learning because they can take it back to their schools and show what they learnt.

“The biggest factor that they can take away is having planted a seed of inspiration for any sort of career in STEM because it gives them the opportunity to see how fun robotics and coding can be.”

Jameson Harvey, founder of Royal Robotics. Picture: Patrick Woods.

Royal Robotics workshops are centred around the Lego EV3 robotics platform which Mr Harvey said is considered the industry standard for primary and secondary school learning.

In 2019, his Chancellor State College high school team finished second in the international First Lego League World Festival competition.

Mr Harvey was also one of 10 young Coast entrepreneurs to receive business mentorship as part of Generation Innovation 2020.

Next year he planned to launch his own robotics competition for school students in the Northern Territory.