Run Robot Run at the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter

By Staff

 

And the children shall lead them… even though Summer Vacation is upon us, Winston-Salem public school students made the 9:00am call time on Friday so that they could coach adult teams in the first Robot Fun Run held at the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter. Rising Paisley IB 6th grader Jack Phelps coached the Winston-Salem State University team and told CCD, “I had to teach basic programming to them, but they learned how to do it a half hour!”

Jack, and other students, coached adult teams from Caterpillar, Carolina Liquid Chemical, Seiman’s Energy, WSSU, the Bio-Medical Engineering Department at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, the Bio-Network from Forsyth Tech, Small Footprints, Whiting-Turner Construction, and Inmar.

The teams were challenged with building and programming a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® robots and then competing to score points on a thematic playing surface. Each team had a middle school student advising them and 2½ minutes to score as many points as possible.

“The purpose of this event is to build awareness for the Fall Robot Run.” said event organizer Dr. Steve Susalka Phd.

“We love having this event here. We consider this to be the hub of innovation in Winston-Salem so this is the perfect fit.” stated Lindsay Yarborough the Manager of Public Activities for the Wake Forest innovation Quarter.

Friday’s event was hosted by the Tech Council of the Winston-Salem Chamber, Cook Medical, the Winston-Salem Forsyth County School System, Caterpillar, and Wake-Forest Baptist Medical Center.

For CCD’s coverage of the Fall 2012 Robot Run click HERE.