I have thought for some time now that iRobot could really make an impact in robotics education. The Robot Stock News blog has this article about the new program sponsored by iRobot that may finally be the thing that promotes robotics education for the company. After all, they are pioneers in robotics, and as such, it is to their advantage to promote the learning side of robotics. The iRobot Create has long been touted as an education tool, but I far as I know, it has never lived up to its billing. Too bad, since I personally like the Create as an education platform. Lots of potential for development in that system. So, this is a worthy effort and one deserving of wide-spread support. One thing for sure is that there cannot be enough robotics education programs. Students love robots and robots will be the hook to get kids into science, math, engineering, and technology fields.
The photo thumbnail below links to the CNET article from January 7, 2007 on robots built using the Create base platform. If you look there, you will see a robot that can hand you a canned beverage, a hamster-steered robot, and an robot that serves up advertisements.
Photo Credit: iRobot
Here's some real exciting news — iRobot is getting ready to debut a major new effort to kickstart robotics education. It's called SPARK, and iRobot is testing a new website to go along with the effort, with what looks like a dozen major partner. The website is at this link.
iRobot Launching "SPARK" Program to Ramp Up Robotics Education
thorn_stevens (noreply@blogger.com)
Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:26:00 GMT
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