At the Thursday meeting of the Hickory Rotary Club, Bill Kent, Vice President for Development with CyberKids Robotics spoke to club members about CyberKids Robotics programs to educate area students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
CyberKids Robotics is a non-profit organization specializing in the creation and education of Robotics Competition Teams for students in grades four through twelve. They provide “turnkey” robotics education programs for schools and organizations all across North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. CyberKids Robotics is currently working with more than 3,800 students across sixteen school systems.
CyberKids Robotics currently offers four different robotics programs to keep students challenged and moving forward with their robotics education.
- Through the LEGO Robotics Competition program, students in grades four through eight design, build and program robots made out of LEGOs. The LEGO Robots are then used to compete in local, state and national robotics competitions.
- Through their FTC (First Tech Challenge) Robotics Competition program, students in grades seven through twelve design build and program metal robots that are operated via remote control in exciting robotics competitions.
- The CyberDroids Robotics Program teaches students to program “humanoid” robots to walk, talk and perform “human tasks.” The CyberDroid robot can speak 21 different languages and is capable of per-forming facial recognition and speech recognition tasks.
- The newest robotics program is the CyberDrone program. Students in grades seven through twelve build and program “drone robots” that are capable of flying and capturing aerial videos. These students then work with area businesses to research and develop “Drone technology” applications for local businesses.
CyberKids Robotics is currently seeking business partners to serve as
mentors and volunteers for local robotics teams. Mentors and volunteers will help area robotics teams prepare for robotics competitions and learn the team building and critical thinking skills needed to successfully compete in local, state and national robotics competitions. For the past three years, CyberKids Robotics has partnered with Lenoir Rhyne University to host the Western NC Robotics Championship in Hickory, NC.
For more information, visit www.cyberkidsrobotics.com.
