Teams of junior high to high school students participating in Ready, Set, Robots! will show off their programming skills starting at ?2:30 p.m.
Ready, Set, Robots! is a two-day camp on IU-Bloomington’s campus designed to introduce teens to technology-related fields and concepts, including computer programming, high performance computing and networking as they work side by side with IU technology professionals and researchers, the IU IT Training website said.
“The idea is to get them interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” Manger of Education and Outreach Robert Ping said in a Ready, Set, Robots! YouTube video. “And if they end up coming to Indiana University, well, that’s all the better”.
Students work in small teams in the Cyberinfrastructure Building to learn the ?basic computer programming skills needed to command a robot to complete a set of predetermined tasks.
“The actual camp engages the kids to do a ‘mission to Mars,’ so they actually use computer programming to engage their robots,” Ping said.
Technology professionals and researchers will work with students using kits from the LEGO Mindstorms series to program robots on a “Mission to Mars,” according to the IU Pervasive Technology Institute webpage.
Tours of the IU Data Center will be available 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. after the Robot Grand Challenge. IU Parking Operations will not ticket during this event, according to the email invitation from UITS Research Technologies.
The Ready, Set, Robots! camp is free to participate in and begins at 9 a.m. Thursday. Students will be provided with light snacks and lunch courtesy of DataDirect Networks.
The IU Cyberinfrastructure Building is located at 2709 E. 10th St.
An advanced Ready, Set, Robots! camp will be offered in the middle of July for students ready for bigger challenges. It runs from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. July 16 and ?July 17.
