Round Two for DARPAHigh?
DARPA is back with part two of MENTOR, the program that brings makerspaces —and the Pentagon— into high schools. In their own words:
"DARPA's Manufacturing Experimentation and Outreach Two (MENTOR2) program aims to improve defense readiness by improving the secondary school and post-secondary school education of those who will be called on to utilize, maintain, and adapt high technology systems in low technology environments. MENTOR2 will achieve this goal by developing and demonstrating new teaching tools and materials in the fields of electromechanical design and manufacturing. It is envisioned that project based curricula employing MENTOR2 design and prototyping tools can teach a deeper understanding of high technology systems, and better enable future competence in the maintenance and adaptation of such systems through the manufacture of as-designed components or the design and manufacture of new components."
No word yet on how the first round of MENTOR went. The past iteration of "DARPA High" created waves in the hacker world, perhaps most famously with Mitch Altman's vocal opposition to military funding for hackers. At the time, Tim O'Reilly (whose organization Make Magazine and Makerfaire received funding) wrote that
@snifty the kids neither know nor care where the funding is coming from. Besides, DARPA is a force for good in the world.
— Tim O'Reilly (@timoreilly) February 19, 2012
No word at all about the children's personal records that the Pentagon would presumably be able to scope. No clue if any of the students did ask questions about the funding or what the military does. One to keep a close eye on...
Previously: http://demilit.tumblr.com/search/darpa
