Mathematics and imagination make robot artists. Just look at the 16 middle school students from around the region on campus this week. Each of them has designed a robot – capable of drawing on its own – using a combination of engineering principles and creative thinking.
And this happens annually at Union during the Robot Camp, a week-long course designed to provide hands-on engineering experience. Instructed by Electrical and Computer Science Lecturer James Hedrick, the campers are tasked with customizing their own robots to solve a designated problem. In this case, it’s not so much a problem as a product – a unique piece of modern art for the Schenectady Museum.
“They’re robot artists,” said Hedrick, who has taught the camp for three of its 10 years. “They learn that imagination and ingenuity are integral to understanding the way robots are built, and the way robots are programmed to solve problems.”
Some of Hedrick’s young students enter the camp never having thought about engineering, while others have dabbled in the field but want to know more.
“My parents are engineers,” said Joy Keat, 11, of Niskayuna, N.Y. “I wanted to see how it is.”
In satisfying curious minds like Keat’s, Robot Camp also challenges the children’s inquisitive natures, and allows them to test the waters of engineering in a tangible and rewarding way.
Miles Smachlo, 12, of Rexford, N.Y., for instance, has been to several summer camps. But this was the first one, he said, “where I could use my brain.”
The art created by the robots will be on display at the Schenectady Museum. The robots themselves will go home with their makers and, Hedrick hopes, remind the students of just how much they’ve accomplished.
“This camp is meant to be the start, not the end, of engineering for these students,” he said.