The Cane Institute for Advanced Technologies
Founded by Dan Cane, The Cane Institute serves as the epicenter for STEM education and technology transfer for A.D. Henderson & FAU High School.
The Institute’s integrated approach to solving society's toughest problems engages the best and brightest students, faculty, and resources at A.D. Henderson & FAU High School to explore today's most complex challenges in arenas such as cybersecurity, autonomous vehicles, robotics, virtual reality, augmented reality, automation and artificial intelligence.
Clubs & Activities
GT-EV
FAU High students work with undergraduate and graduate students, as well as FAU Professors on designing and building an alternative energy vehicle. Students learn fundamental mechanical and electrical engineering concepts, real-world troubleshooting, and 3D part design. The GT-EV Team competes at the National EV Challenge in April every year.
ELECTRATHON
A.D. Henderson and FAU High students build three electric go-karts to compete in regional Electrathon competitions and the National EV Challenge in April of every year. These mini electric cars are used as the platform to learn skills necessary to be part of the larger GT-EV team. Two of these karts are driven by students. One kart is being developed into an autonomous vehicle and was featured in the Museum of Discovery and Science.
MACHINE PERCEPTION & COGNITIVE ROBOTICS
In partnership with the FAU College of Science, students investigate Autonomous Vehicles and how systems are used to create neural networks to “drive” artificial intelligence in various vehicle platforms. These projects have been on display at the Museum of Discovery and Science as part of “Self-Driven”.
UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES (UAV’S)
Drones are on the forefront of modern robotics technology. We have developed and hosted an autonomous drone competition where middle and high school students, from throughout Florida, programmed drones to fly reconnaissance missions, deliver medical supplies, and fly through obstacles. This STEM competition challenges teams to develop programming skills to successfully fly missions without any pilot input.
ROBOT DRONE LEAGUE
A.D. Henderson and FAU High have partnered with TechGarage at TechRunway to design, build, and host a unique competition that blends programmed and piloted drone flight with terrestrial robots capable of both autonomous and driver-operated missions. Teams consist of two drones and two terrestrial robots. This competitive season runs from September to December.
SEAPERCH
Sponsored by the United States Office of Naval Research, SEAPERCH, is an innovative underwater robotics program that teaches basic engineering and science concepts with a marine engineering theme. Students build an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) while learning problem solving, teamwork, and real-world technical applications. We host several regional qualifier tournaments at FAU High annually in February and March. Both our middle school and high school SeaPerch teams have earned special recognition at the National SeaPerch Tournament. Our High school teams have won back to back first place in Engineering Design in the Open Class division.
SCIENCE FAIR
Each year, students across various grade levels produce a science fair project in any topic ranging from Biology, Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, and many others over the course of the school year. Students are invited to showcase their projects in an in-house competition. In 2017, all 17 middle school students won awards at the Palm Beach Regional Science fair, 4 students advanced to the State science fair, and one of our students won best overall in Florida. In 2018, an FAU High junior went on to place fourth at the International Science & Engineering Fair.
FIRST LEGO LEAGUE
FLL introduces elementary and middle school students to real-world engineering challenges by building LEGO based autonomous robots to complete various tasks on a thematic playing surface. Students develop employment and life skills including critical thinking, time management, and teamwork. Students compete in FLL competitions from October to January.
ANIMATRONICS
A.D. Henderson and FAU High students heard about the cost associated with renting a real owl to perch during the opening of home football games. Our students designed and built an animatronic owl that would replicate a perched owl and programmed this animatronic owl to interact with people through facial recognition software. This animatronic owl resides in the President’s Box during FAU Football home games.
FIRST TECH CHALLENGE
Middle school and high school students form FIRST Tech Challenge teams that are responsible for designing, building, and programming robots to compete head-to-head in a 12’ x 12’ field. Students gain practical, hands-on skills that test the theories and concepts they learn in the classroom. Students work afterschool as part of the TechGarage club and compete in regional league competitions from September to February.
FIRST ROBOTICS COMPETITION
Students work closely with community mentors to design and build a large, 125 lb. robot within a 6-week build period that begins in January. Our team then competes in the South Florida Regional FRC Tournament in March. This program gives students the opportunity to work shoulder-to-shoulder with real engineers, engineering major students, and graduate students. Given the short build cycle, students learn about time management and teamwork skills that transition to the workforce. Our rookie team won the Rookie Inspire Award and finished as part of the fifth place alliance at the 2018 World Championship in Houston, TX.
TECHGARAGE CAMP
Partnered with TechGarage, we offer 4 weeks of Robotics camp each summer. Advanced campers focus on learning skill sets to be successful when exposed to different programming environments, such as Computer Aided Design (CAD) and electronics. Beginning campers get an introduction into the sport of robotics. The purpose of the camp is to accelerate the skills and knowledge of the students so that they have a measure of independence that allows them to compete in Firs Lego League, First Tech Challenge, SeaPerch Underwater ROV, and more.
JROTC STEM CAMP
Each June, A.D. Henderson and FAU High hosts over 300 Broward & Lee County JROTC cadets for a week-long residential STEM summer camp. During this camp, cadets build rockets, catapults, CO2 cars, SeaPerch Underwater ROVs, and more. Cadets work in teams and go through the engineering process to optimize performance, then compete for awards.
SECME
SECME is one of our STEM pathway clubs where we have an elementary, middle, and high school club. These clubs collaborate and help each other through near-peer mentoring to prepare for regional competitions in February and the National SECME competition in June. Our middle school team won 1st place in the nation in rocketry and mousetrap car design in 2018. This team won 1st place overall at the Palm Beach Regional SECME Championship.
SCIENCE OLYMPIAD
Science Olympiad is a STEM pathway club where there are teams in elementary, middle, and high school. The competition consists of 23 team events where an emphasis is placed on active, hands-on group participation. Each year, a portion of the events are rotated to reflect the ever-changing nature of genetics, earth science, chemistry, anatomy, physics, geology, mechanical engineering and technology. By combining events from all disciplines, Science Olympiad encourages a wide cross-section of students to get involved.
SPEC CLASSES
Elementary students at A.D. Henderson can select from several STEAM electives as part of their special elective rotator classes. Options include FIRST Lego League, WeDo Robotics, Augmented Reality with Legos, Science Olympiad and SECME, Wonder Workshop, Cardboard Arcade, the Science of Sound with LittleBits, and more! Students choose a new SPEC class each quarter for a truly diverse learning experience that teaches them through project-based learning.
FEM-STEM
FEM-STEM is an initiative at FAU High that works to encourage young women to prepare for STEM careers in which they are traditionally underrepresented. The club offers a guest lecture series, mentoring, fieldtrips, a workshop series in the STEM Lab to learn how to use the various 3D printers and laser cutter, resume services and other resources that will allow members to pursue their career goals with confidence.