Each summer, dozens of talented undergraduates from around the world come to Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute for its Summer Scholars program, an intensive 11-week program introducing them to state-of-the-art robotics research. Many of these students, however, have never built a robot as an undergrad.
This year, the Robotics Institute teamed with UBTech Education, a leading provider of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) education solutions to create the Robot Build Challenge. Using advanced robotics kits provided by UBTech Education, teams of students gained hands-on experience building autonomous wheeled robots capable of communicating with other robots.
UBTech CTO, Dr. Howard Michel, stated, “This is a natural partnership – a top robotics research center and an industrial leader aiming to bring robots into every aspect of our homes. UBTech Education is building affordable hardware, software, and K-12 STEAM curriculum to excite and engage students through hands-on problem solving. This competition allowed teams to not only deal with technology but also the human aspects of technology.”