"Named for a classic critical thinking puzzle, 9 Dots was founded in 2011 by a passionate group of engineers and educators who believe all kids deserve the chance to imagine a career in engineering. We especially saw a need in communities that lack the types of programming that we had access to growing up - programming that teaches engineering and technology and helps develop students’ problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity skills. We set out to create a science, technology, engineering, and math program in Los Angeles (well before “STEM” was a thing). What started in a small classroom as an after-school project to teach STEM skills in a fun, engaging way, quickly evolved into something far more ambitious."