Millikin students developing programs to make robotics more accessible
Before coming to Millikin University, neither Jayme Reed, Class of 2022, nor Brian Freeman, Class of 2023 had much experience with robotics, but after joining Millikin's competitive robotics club, Blue Bots, they are both working on projects to share what they've learned and to bring robotics to students of all ages. This summer, as part of their undergraduate research fellowships, Jayme and Brian are developing programs to reach students all the way from Kindergarten to college for the purpose of making robotics and computer science more accessible.
Jayme, a mathematics and secondary education major from Atlanta, Ill., is developing an honors seminar in robotics specifically for fellow students at Millikin. "This is an opportunity to create an honor's course specifically for programming, which is not readily available right now at Millikin," Jayme said, discussing the honors syllabus she is writing. "This can encourage non-computer science and math majors to take a class to learn about programming," she added.
Brian is hoping to introduce robotics and STEM content to a younger audience with his research project. A data science major from Crystal Lake, Ill., Brian is creating a K-12 outreach program intended to bring computer science and robotics to local schools. "I'm making classes for students who might not have much computer science background so they can learn the basics. I want to show them things they can easily access, like programming with a TI-84 calculator and how to build a small robot and program it to drive," Brian explained.
Both students are actively involved in Blue Bots, Millikin's intercollegiate robotics team that competes in a variety of competitions against other schools through VEX U. Though Blue Bots is primarily a computer science-focused student organization, all majors are welcome to join. The team has roles to fit all skill sets, from decorating the meeting room and social media, to programming, designing and building the robots.