10/16/2026
Day 2 at the 2026 Americas LNG Summit & Exhibition was another great day for the SWLA Tech Pirates! 🏴☠️
Our students and mentors spent the day networking with engineers, companies, and industry leaders from around the world, making new connections and sharing what our team is doing right here in Southwest Louisiana.
One of our favorite moments today was meeting the leadership team ES2 | Geospatial, Surveying & GIS Consulting Services. We enjoyed learning about their work and bringing our robot over to their booth to show them what our students have built. They were genuinely excited about our program and the work we’re doing to develop the next generation of STEM talent.
Throughout the summit, our students had the opportunity to talk directly with industry professionals about their robot. And if you’ve ever talked to our students about their work, you know they don’t hold back! They can explain what they’ve designed, built, wired, and programmed, and the pride they take in their work is easy to see. Watching professionals listen, ask questions, and recognize the skills these students have developed was a highlight of this experience.
We also want to extend a sincere thank you to Lidia, Nell, Harry, and Emmanuel with dmg events for welcoming us to the summit, providing us with an exhibition booth, and giving us the opportunity to demonstrate our robot on the Innovation & Workforce Stage. We are grateful to have been part of such a valuable experience.
This summit gave us the opportunity to show industry leaders what we do. We’re developing confident students who can solve problems, work through challenges, communicate technical ideas, and bring their designs to life. More importantly, the mission of this program is to help our students grow into confident, capable future leaders who are prepared to make a difference in their communities and beyond.
In our program, our students learn how to lead teams, collaborate with others, take initiative, overcome setbacks, speak with confidence, and trust in their own abilities. These are skills that matter in the workforce, in their communities, and throughout every stage of life.
After two days of conversations with engineers, company representatives, and industry leaders, we left feeling even more confident in what we’re building. The talent is here in Southwest Louisiana. Our job is to help our students develop it, believe in themselves, become leaders, and have opportunities to show the world what they can do.
We’re just so proud of our Tech Pirates, and we look forward to continuing our conversations with the people we met at the summit!
