Their children had mountains of toys, Harden said, but none of them added much value to playtime.
With an online fundraiser on Kickstarter.com starting Wednesday, Harden and Jeremy Scheinberg hope to change that with TROBO, a stuffed robot and storytelling software application.
The entrepreneurs offer two models of TROBOs: Edison, named after Thomas Edison, and Curie, named after Marie Curie, a physicist and chemist who did some of the first research on radioactivity.
Both TROBOs tell stories meant to pique children’s interest in science, technology, engineering and math.
Harden said both he and Scheinberg have a background in engineering, and they support the increased focus on those subjects in school curricula.
“It defines us as individuals, and we want to share that to our children as early as we can,” Harden said of STEM learning.
The app is meant for kids age 2 to 7. The stuffed robot and the software, which includes five stories, cost $60.
If the Kickstarter campaign is successful, Harden said, they will likely add more apps or stories.
Harden, who attended Anniston High School, received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Auburn University in 1998. He also has a master’s in business administration from the University of South Florida.
Before taking on TROBO full time, Harden was a development director at EA Sports. He oversaw the team that created the central user interfaces — the menus and data seen on the screen — of games such as the sports simulations Madden NFL and NCAA Football.
He was also an assistant inker for comic book series such as Marvel’s Spiderman and DC Comics’ Batman.
“Growing up in Anniston, I learned the power of a solid education. From Johnston Elementary to Anniston High, children have so many opportunities to learn from amazing teachers. I did, and I am trying to pass my passion for learning onto young children everywhere in a fun, engaging way,” Harden was quoted in a press release as saying.
©2014 The Anniston Star (Anniston, Ala.)
