Indiana high school students with an interest in computer technology, programming or networking worked alongside IU technology professionals to program their own robots during the Pervasive Technology Institute Fun, Sun and Robots! Summer Technology Workshop. The hands-on workshop took place on June 15, 2010 in the new IU Innovation Center.

Students worked in small teams to build a robot and program it to do seemingly simple tasks. In order to help students understand how precise programming is, students got to "program" each other, by shouting out simple commands that their teammates had to follow. The teens discovered that telling their human robot to “walk to the door”, for example, wasn’t specific enough when their friend failed to stop upon reaching the door.  The teens learned that robots will only do exactly what you program them to do and that each step must be carefully
considered and programmed.

The day ended with a little friendly competition as the teams put forth their best final attempt to have their robots complete the task. The students had a great time cheering their robots and laughing at their pitfalls. For more on the program, watch this short video and check out the photo gallery at
http://pti.iu.edu/gallery/robot-workshop .

Having Trouble Viewing? Click here for our lower resolution verison.

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