Made in Connecticut: 3Dux Design gets kids inspired to build with their hands and their minds

This is literally what the world needs. They need to balance what they're doing in the tech world with hands-on creative play, interacting with each other, building. That's all part of the engineering design concept that kids are missing when they're just poking their fingers on an iPad. Our company is Vlidux Design. We make cardboard-based modeling systems for home play and educational purposes at school. My daughter and son invented the product. My daughter actually took an architecture class and fell in love with how architecture really blends the arts and the sciences and technology. And it was the first time in all of my education that I really experienced hands-on learning. And she felt that if kids were exposed to something like architecture, super hands-on and creative, they would actually potentially be interested in a STEM career. So she and her brother went back to what they did when they were little with play. We created these little connectors and cardboard and through that it's a cardboard-based modeling system and then we developed a lot of different lesson plans and activities that go along with the product so that there's a little bit more structure and learning that goes into it. There's six different shapes. They're all designed to fit onto cardboard so the cardboard slides in between each side of the connector that holds it and it allows students to build very complex complex structures very easily. It teaches students as young as three their different angles. All of the packaging and distributing happens here at the factory. There's a lot of work that goes into it day by day, so coming to the factory and just putting together the orders that are going out, it's definitely exciting. Our product is really setting kids up for future-ready skills. We love hearing feedback from the teachers and the schools that use our product and from families. It really builds those human skills through project-based learning, and that's definitely very rewarding too. We're highlighting the people making, creating, and building something special right here at home. Join us for Made in the Tri-State tonight at 8 p.m.