High school robotics internships

We've joined forces with ten high school girls from the local YWCA and Girl Scouts for an eight-week internship program. Our interns get to go behind the scenes as we create the Children's Museum robotic painter exhibit, taking part in the design and testing of the exhibit as well as pursuing related robotics projects of their own. In addition to our exhibit work together, we explore robotics in entertainment technology, visit a variety of robotics organizations, and meet female role models in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields.

Check out Intern team members to learn more about our interns!

Week one

March 2nd & March 4th
(Download newsletter #1)

We met many of our interns for the first time and gave them a tour of the Entertainment Technology Center, including a talk from Drew Davidson, the director of our program. We visited all the ETC project rooms to get an overview of the variety of work that goes on here before settling in to discuss our own project. The core team introduced the robotic painter exhibit concept and we all brainstormed theming to make it look cool and attract young children.

Week two

March 16th & March 18th
(Download newsletter #2)

Using our exhibit blueprints and a lot of duct tape and cardboard, we each measured and cut out a piece of the exhibit cabinet to create a life-sized mock-up of the robotic painter exhibit. (See the mock-up in action at the Children's Museum.) We also met with David Palmer (and Penbo) of Bossa Nova Concepts for a brainstorming session. Our interns came up with and presented ideas for robotics toys designed to appeal to young girls, and then rated the cuteness of potential future robotic toy characters on a scale from one to ten.

Week three

March 22nd & March 25th
(Dowload newsletter #3)

We began hands-on robotics work in earnest, splitting into two groups: programmers and mechanical engineers. Our programmers began learning the coding language Python and went through the process of creating a hangman game. Our mechanical engineers used a Robotis Bioloids kit to build two robotic arms similar to the LynxMotion arm that is part of the Children's Museum exhibit. Both groups attended a lecture on what a robot is and the two main ways in which robots can be programmed to move—forward kinematics and inverse kinematics.

Week four

March 30th & April 1st
(Dowload newsletter #4)

Our programmers and mechanical engineers reunited to start on the project of making the Robotis Bioloids arms able to play tic-tac-toe. The programmers learned how to control the robotic arms using code, and the mechanical engineers experimented with different types of grippers and ways of mounting the arm. We also met with Marek Michalowski and Keepon of BeatBots and learned how robotics aids researchers in studying child development and helping children with autism. We got to see firsthand how Keepon works and control him using a wiimote.