Fredi Lajvardi

Fredi Lajvardi’s story captured the nation’s attention when his team of Latino high school teens channeled their inner spirit of drive, ingenuity, and creativity to beat the odds and become an unstoppable force, winning one robotics competition after another. The story was captured in the documentary Underwater Dreams, the IMAX film Dream Big, and in the book and major motion picture Spare Parts, starring comedic legend George Lopez. In inspiring and frequently hilarious presentations, Fredi Lajvardi shares how his national champion robotics team achieved such unprecedented success and explains why hands-on, STEM education is so important. He also shares invaluable insights on leadership, fostering teamwork, and leveraging diversity to build teams that are creative, innovative and resilient.

A teacher whose own youth as an Iranian immigrant helped him connect with students in the predominantly Hispanic high school where he taught for over 30 years, Fredi Lajvardi shows audiences why diversity is key to building teams that support and motivate each other, fueling creative innovation and problem solving in remarkable ways. As organizations look for the secrets to attracting, nurturing, and motivating talent, Fredi shares the secrets of leading high-performing teams, and he helps audiences see the critical role that diversity plays in building resilient, innovative organizations.

Multiple studies show that the way we educate kids today isn’t relevant in an information economy. STEM advocate and award-winning science teacher Fredi Lajvardi draws on his remarkable experiences coaching the famed “Spare Parts” high school robotics club to explore how and why project-based, hands-on education programs do a better job of encouraging creativity and innovation by teaching kids how to solve real-world problems and how to work with others on diverse, high-performing teams that can accomplish more than any individual can on their own.