Crazy Smart Summer: Girls Build Robots To Help People

Michigan Tech 'Latest News'

Some middle schoolers spend their summers lounging poolside or visiting grandma. Others spend part of vacation building robots.During the Women in Robotics Summer Youth Program at Michigan Technological University this week, 23 girls going into sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth grades will learn to program, wire, troubleshoot and construct two robots, the GUPPIE and the Neu-pulator.
The purpose of the camp is to teach participants how robots can assist humans in exploring the environment and can otherwise benefit us and improve quality of life.
“These concepts are to motivate students,” says Nina Mahmoudian, associate professor in the mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics department and director of the Nonlinear and Autonomous Systems Lab. “We want them to see robotics as something useful in their lives. They learn there is a lot to be done in the future. We want to ignite their curiosity, what they can do in the future. We can motivate them, engage them and they can go on and stay engaged.”
The camp, which is a collaborative effort with Mo Rastgaar, an associate professor in the mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics department and director of Human-Interactive Robotics Lab, is funded in part by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which allows girls who applied to attend the competitive program at a reduced rate. 
Invent with Open-Source Software
The girls will begin the week learning how to program an Arduino open-source board, how to model different parts with Autodesk Inventor software, and to understand the engineering process to solve problems. Students practice these skills in the first two days of the camp by completing small projects.
But the approach to learning isn’t the typical classroom environment.
“Everything that we do is learn and play so students internalize what they learn,” Mahmoudian says. “They take the games seriously because they are implementing their concepts. At the end, they put all the components ...

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