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Aubie hands out this year’s Terry Marbut Memorial Award to deserving recipient, Clay Ninas.
Keynote speaker, Dr. Chris Crawford, shows how brainwaves can be used in computing.
Mary Waterhouse engages with an Ozobot Evo robot during a session.
Rachel McDonald from Dauphin Island Sea Lab presents a session on underwater robotics.
Two educators collaborate on coding exercises during a breakout session at the 2025 Southern Educational Robotics Conference.
While Auburn University students were away for fall break, more than 120 robotics educators and professionals from across the Southeast gathered for the 2025 Southern Educational Robotics Conference (SERC).
Held on Oct. 9, SERC brought together passionate educators and industry leaders to share best practices, explore emerging technologies and strengthen the growing robotics education community.
Since its founding in 2019, SERC has become a cornerstone event for hands-on training and leadership development in robotics education. Many educators return year after year — 11 of this year’s attendees have participated since the conference began.
This year SERC welcomed its first higher education keynote speaker, Chris Crawford, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Alabama. Crawford shared groundbreaking research in psychological computing which is a technology that uses brainwaves to control robotics, such as flying a drone with thought alone.
“SERC is about being innovative, and Chris is on the forefront of technologies that will impact all of us in the near future,” said Jennifer Spencer, assistant director of the Southeastern Center of Robotics Education (SCORE). “We are fortunate he was able to share his time with the educators of tomorrow’s STEM leaders.”
Conference sessions covered a wide range of topics including integrated teaching with robots, virtual robotics and coding, grant opportunities, digital literacy, computer science standards, robotics competitions and research in robotics education.
Mary Waterhouse, an elementary teacher and robotics coach from Marshall County Schools in North Alabama, attends SERC each year to stay current with evolving technology and teaching strategies.
“SERC provides valuable resources for teachers, administrators and coaches to bring back to their schools,” said Waterhouse. “It also offers a unique opportunity to collaborate with other robotics educators which is something many of us can’t do in our own buildings.”
Each year, SERC honors one outstanding educator with the Terry Marbut Memorial Award. The 2025 recipient, Clay Ninas of Phenix City Schools, was recognized for his dedication and impact.
"This award is a testament to the hard work and dedication my students pour into everything they do — they truly make me look good,” said Ninas. “Through robotics and STEM, I get to see students who might not participate in traditional extracurriculars find a community, grow in confidence and become leaders. Robotics are about teamwork, leadership and giving students a place to shine.”
Originally launched as a VEX-focused event, SERC evolved in 2020 into the nation’s first and only multi-platform educational robotics conference. It now serves a broad audience of educators using various platforms, offering both general best practices and deep dives into platform-specific integration for school curricula.
