Educational Outreach
Bionic Trojans (2011-2012)
In the 2011-2012 academic year, CISCOR continued to help coach the Nim’s Middle School Bionic Trojans for FIRST Lego League robotics competitions. The team participated in two competitions at the Covenant Christian School in Panama City, Florida. In the first competition, the team was awarded the first place overall award, which qualified it for the second event, where it received the award for best robot design and narrowly missed qualifying for the next level of competition.
Bionic Trojans (2010-2011)
In the 2010-2011 academic year, CISCOR sponsored a FIRST Lego League robotics team called the Bionic Trojans. The students spent a minimum of 3 days a week designing and programming the Lego Mindstorm NXT and working on the research project that was part of the competition. The Bionic Trojans competed in two statewide competitions. The first was held in Panama City, FL at Covenant Christian School where they received the first place Robotic Technical award. This award was given to them for the design of their robot and their ability to effectively explain to the judges the robot design and programming for the challenge. The second competition at the Cornerstone School was held in Ocala, FL. The team took home the Mechanical Design award. This award was given to them for the design of their robot. These achievements were a great feat for a rookie team! Another highlight of the year was the team's feature on the Florida State University radio program 411Teen. The program is currently available by clicking here.
FCAAP Future Summer Academy 2010
The FCAAP (Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion) Future Summer Academy was conducted for the first time in July 2010. The aim was to involve twenty highly talented high school students from across the state of Florida in a week long program designed to introduce students to aerospace engineering. FCAAP faculty, staff and graduate students conducted two half-day workshops that gave students exposure to concepts in robotic flying vehicles and planetary rovers. The response from the students was very positive.
ProAMS (Proficiency in and Appreciation of Math and Science)
ProAMS, implemented during the 2009-2010 academic year, is the evolution of the RIMS program, which commenced as a pilot program in November, 2008 and was conducted for the remainder of the 2008-2009 academic year. The purpose of RIMS was to use robots to teach students important concepts in math and science and to motivate them to appreciate math and science via hands-on experiences with robots. ProAMS retained the use of robotics, specifically Lego Mindstorm robots. However, recognizing that robots are not always the best mechanisms for teaching all aspects of science, ProAMS incorporated presentations and hands-on activities in a variety of science disciplines to reinforce key concepts in science and math. The core of ProAMS was an in-school program conducted once a week for the three 8th grade science classes. Many of the presentations and activities were led by representatives from science disciplines at Florida State University or Florida A&M University while the rest were led by the ProAMS director from the Center for Intelligent Systems, Control, and Robotics (CISCOR). We believe this is to be an effective program model for a secondary schools that is located close to at least one major university.
First Robotics Competition
In the spring semester 2010 ProAMS in conjunction with Chad Jackson, a local robotics competition organizer and enthusiast, conducted an afterschool program oriented towards competition in the international First Robotics Competition. The team participated under the banner of the Panhandle Pirates in a regional competition near New Orleans, Louisiana. This team of rookies received a first place award at the regional conference in addition to the "Judges Award," awarded to the team that most impressed the judges, who interviewed the team members to evaluate their knowledge of their robot. They went on to participate in the final competition in Atlanta, Georgia.
Mary Brogan Art and Science Museum
Under the leadership of Dr. Billy Oates an on-going program has been established in collaboration with the Mary Brogran Art and Science Museum. This is a monthly Saturday afternoon program (1:00pm every third Saturday of the month) entitled: Magnificent Materials and Exotic Engineering--(ME)2 geared toward kids and parents of all ages. This program includes hands on demonstrations of adaptive materials such as piezoelectric composites for energy harvesting, magnetostrictive "sound bugs", temperature sensitive cholesteric liquid crystals, and artificial muscles along with demonstrations of legged robots and concepts from nanoscience.
FAMU Brite-Idea Invention Camp
On June 9th-13th, 2008 Florida A&M University conducted its fourth Summer Invention Camp for middle and high school students from schools throughout Leon and surrounding counties. Approximately thirty students had the opportunity to learn, firsthand, the complete process of taking an idea from conception to the marketplace. During this week-long camp, the students learned creative and inventive thinking, how to innovate and invent; determine if their ideas have already been disclosed by others through "prior art" searches; and discover ways to protect and market their novel developments. Invention and innovation is learned within the context of learning practical Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). CISCOR participated in this outreach by providing a half day workshop on robotics.
FAMU Developmental Research School
In 2006 students from grades eight through twelve were exposed to the CISCOR undergraduate students' research projects. One project presented was of a robot using a laser to detect and autonomously navigate around obstacles. Later, the students were able to conduct experiments where the students directed the robots from a laptop. While some were waiting to experiment, the CISCOR group showed more cutting-edge presentations including underwater robots, vehicular robots, as well as transformable robots. Click on the picture to the right for more pictures.
Challenger Learning Center Back to School Blastoff
High profile events like the war in Iraq and the landing of the Sojourner on Mars have helped grow students' interest in robotics. Through the Challenger Learning Center located downtown Tallahassee, the group from CISCOR had the opportunity to capitalize on the students' interest in robotics. In 2005, the group had the chance to put a robotics demonstration for the Challenger Learning Center Back to School Blastoff technology fair. There, the children were able to receive hands-on access to tele-robotics which involves the remote control of a robot over a distance of a few meters to many miles.
