Gwen Bryan and rising eighth-grader Sonja Christiansen. “Sometimes you see a camper really awed by a one-on-one opportunity with an individual scientist,” said Schwuttke, recalling the connection that formed between Dr. Cheryl Johnson shared the concept of human factors with campers, and Rachel Farmer and Ben Thompson, both from Lockheed Martin, gave presentations on careers in engineering. Quantum Improvements Consulting Senior Scientist Dr. Archna Bhatia), and artificial intelligence (Senior Creative and Multimedia Specialist William Howell). Ian Perera), natural language processing (Research Scientist Dr. Heath Parr, a teacher at Brown-Barge Middle School, provided the daily robotics challenges and instructions.ĭuring the Ocala sessions, IHMC staff introduced campers to concepts in computer game design (Research Scientist Dr. Toshi Miyatsu, and the ever-popular IHMC robotics lab tour. Gwen Bryan, an introduction to brain science and human performance research from Research Scientist Dr. Matt Johnson, exoskeleton exploration with Research Scientist Dr. In Pensacola, these sessions included an interactive virtual reality demonstration from Senior Research Associate John Carff and Research Scientist Dr.

During the daily “Lunch With a Scientist” sessions, IHMC researchers explain their work and answer campers’ questions over a meal. In addition to real-life engineering experience, Robotics Camp also provides students with inspiring professional role models. “Giving the kids that opportunity to build and code something themselves is pretty great.” “You don’t get too many chances to actually mess around with robots in day-to-day life,” said Max Truong, a former Science Saturdays attendee who is now a rising senior at Tate High School and a Pensacola camp volunteer. Campers attending the second Ocala session also learned how to program in Python. Students then used a block-based, visually appealing coding language to guide their creations through mazes and obstacle courses, debugging code and redesigning robots as they went. Under the guidance of IHMC staff and volunteers from local high schools, campers worked in pairs to assemble LEGO Mindstorms robots. Ursula Schwuttke, IHMC’s Director of Educational Outreach.Īny future in STEM requires strong teamwork and problem-solving skills, and Robotics Camp is designed to teach just that. “We are reaching out to the next generation of scientists, helping them to discover what their future might look like,” said Dr. Teamwork is a big part of Summer Robotics Camp

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