ABOUT US
Dr Todd Zhao
J.P. Ph.D.
Dr Todd Zhao completed his Doctoral degree in Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, and has over 15 years’ research experience in Mechatronic engineering field, over 10 years’ lecturing experience, and he is a regularly invited reviewer for six international journals.
In 2015, STEM Academy (trading as STEM Club) was founded by Dr Zhao due to a gap in the market in training young people in STEM, and was registered by the National VET Regulator as a NVR Registered Training Organisation (RTO Code: 45736). The goal of STEM Academy (trading as STEM Club) is to bring to life science, technology, engineering and mathematics with practical activities and real-life problems to engage more young people in STEM, and provide a simple and easy guidance in STEM education for schoolteachers.
STEM Academy (trading as STEM Club) also has a strategic plan to invest in developing Artificial Intelligence technologies to support schools and educators. STEM Academy has long-time and close collaborations with universities such as UTS and USYD in both developing Artificial Intelligence technologies (e.g. Towards a Structured Understanding of Private Educational Scenes and Smart Solar Systems) and STEM course development (e.g. Robotics and Python Programming).
STEM Academy (trading as STEM Club) is also focusing on developing smart renewable energy generation technology, and at the same time, offers a range of outreach STEM activities or school students. Over the past years since its establishment, Australia Renewable Energy Lab (AREL) of STEM Academy has designed a small-scale vertical-axis wind turbine for use in rural area, conceptualized a bladeless wind turbine, carried out dynamic analysis of offshore wind turbine, and provided maintenance schedule for an onshore wind farm composed of large horizontal-axis wind turbines.
Collaborating Partners
Our Curriculum Map
Coding and robotics is a new form of literacy, a ‘must-have’ skill for every student, irrespective of their future career plans. We will provide our students with an understanding of how the digital world works and gives them the tools to take an active part in it. Just like learning to read and write, the earlier in their lives students are exposed to coding, the easier it is for them to absorb the concepts.
We believe that with the proper methodology and attention everyone can learn to code, therefore, at STEM Club our prerequisite is expertise and motivation. We design our classes to leverage the diverse needs and interests of our learners.
Our goal is to take student’s curiosity and combine it with great challenges given in the way of robotics and programming to create the draw for them to learn without being forced. Our research team keeps their job to make sure we are always on track with what is needed today and tomorrow. After developments are complete for any stage, we continue making changes based on feedback from students, teachers, parents and our executive team. We never stop developing.