Robot-Assisted Home Inspection

Soon after retiring from the classroom in June 2022 with the Santa Clara Unified School District, I embarked on a self-guided learning journey to keep myself intellectually stimulated.  The Krause Center for Innovation (KCI) is my go-to venue for interesting professional development (PD) programs.  During one of such PD programs in the Summer of 2025, Justin Sewell told me about an Incubator Pilot Program (IPP) at Foothill College spearheaded by Ron Zinger.  Ron was looking for educators interested in learning entrepreneurial skills to start a business.  I jumped on board and met Ron in September 2025.

My idea for a new business has since led to a project titled “Robot-Assisted Home Inspection”.  In the Fall of 2025, under Ron’s mentorship, I learned how to conduct market research and build a business case for an unmet need for homeowners.  The project has caught interests among other departments at Foothill College, and I am in the process of building a team of students to get the project going as of the writing of this blog post.

My experience to date with the IPP has been extremely positive.  I have been exposed to ideas and skills that were foreign to me as a retired middle school math teacher.  As a lifelong learner, I love the challenge.  Just as importantly, my experience with the IPP could inform ways to tailor the program for educators.  My first thought was to research Career and Technical Education (CTE) to identify standards that align with the IPP’s learning objectives.  One of the many areas of study within CTE is Business and Marketing, whose mission is to prepare students for careers and/or postsecondary education in marketing, finance, accounting, information technology, entrepreneurship, and economics.  Many of my responsibilities as a project lead within the IPP overlap with the skill set mentioned in the mission statement for CTE’s Business and Marketing area of study. 

I therefore believe that the mindset and skills we teach project leads in the IPP can be adapted into a CTE curriculum for Business and Marketing.  The hands-on experience in the IPP translates well into real-world connections for CTE students.  As a leader in innovative professional developments, KCI could tap into its large network of educators to recruit collaborators to create such an entrepreneurship curriculum tailored for K-12 teachers.  Besides creating a new curriculum, KCI could also serve as a hub, both physical and virtual, for educators to meet and support one another.