*ADVANCED STUDIO - Recommended for High School Students, Post-High School Gap Year Students and/or Returning NuVu Students*

The Earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, and the Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami focused the world’s attention on the massive destruction that emerges from natural disasters. The sites of these major natural disasters - fiery acres of remote forest, earthquake-shattered cities, tornado-ravaged towns, and contaminated nuclear plants - typically prove extremely dangerous for humans. When conditions are too perilous, robots can take a leading role - coming to the rescue in life-threatening situations.

This Studio will put you in the front seat of designing the “brains” or decision-making intelligence of robots that could save thousands if not millions of lives in a disaster situation. How can robots work with firefighters, emergency medical doctors, or disaster relief/emergency workers? Based on the environmental, behavioral, and equipment needs of these groups, students will build a basic robot and then focus on the artificial intelligence or programming of the robot to improve safety and add functionality in a given situation. Students will learn the basics of electronics and microcontrollers, while delving deep into computer programming. They will also learn how to program external sensors (from simple switches and buttons to heat/temperature, light, gas, touch) and actuators (such as motors, lights, speakers, solenoids, valves, fans) to allow the robots to make decisions and function autonomously in the given environment.

Register here!

Focus Skills/Subjects/Technologies:

  Design

  Physics (Electricity, Magnetism)

  Engineering

  Programming

  Electronics

   Robotics (Arduino, Sensors, Actuators)

   Digital Fabrication (Laser-cutting, 3d Printing)

   3d Modeling

Prerequisites:

• Enrolling students must be any of the following:
  • High School Student
  • Post-High School Gap Year Student
  • Returning NuVu Student
• Students must have prior programming experience