Archive for the ‘FTC’ Category
ROBOTC Professional Development Courses
We LOVE summers here at ROBOTC, and one of the main reasons for that is we get to meet tons of awesome teachers, mentors, and coaches at our ROBOTC Professional Development training courses! It’s our chance to meet our users and make sure they’re equipped with a solid foundation in ROBOTC programming to take back with them for a successful new school year; and it’s your chance to meet our team, ask questions, and give us feedback. We have separate courses for LEGO & TETRIX and VEX CORTEX with the option to take the class on-site or online.
Benefits of our On-site courses includes:
✓ Provided hardware and the ROBOTC software in our classrooms.
✓ Over 30+ hours of hands on experience.
✓ Training provided by the developers of the curriculum and software.
✓ Custom course content: We adjust the course to the skill level and desires of the participants.
✓ Mapping of robotics curriculum with national standards.
✓ Tour of the National Robotics Engineering Center.
✓ ACT 48 Credits (for PA teachers.)
✓ Certificate of completion for course “Graduates.”
✓ Lunch provided at no additional cost.
Enjoy these benefits with our Online Training:
✓ Convenient online training from your home or school via the Internet.
✓ Online access to video training material and supplemental lessons from CMU’s Robotics Academy.
✓ 24/7 access to class forums and message boards (monitored regularly.)
✓ Screen sharing and live discussion amongst the class.
✓ Technical support for all hardware and software used in the class.
✓ Networking opportunities with other professional educators.
In every Professional Development course, you will have the opportunity to take the certification exam to become a “Robotics Academy Certified Instructor.”
Contact training@rec.ri.cmu.edu to learn more!
FAQ:
- Does this course offer college credit?
- The course offers continuing education credit and documents that you have participated in 36 hours worth of instruction at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Academy. It is not a college credit course.
- What happens if I don’t pass the certification test?
- The certification test is offered after you complete the course. If you don’t pass the certification test, you will have the opportunity to retake the exam one month later.
- Can I use Robot Virtual Worlds in my classroom?
- Yes, but Robot Virtual Worlds is available via the ROBOTC software.
- How do I register for the course?
- Go to Professional Development Robotics Academy Classes 2013 and follow the instructions.
- Does the Robotics Academy take Purchase Orders?
- Yes.
- When should I register?
- As soon as possible. The courses are limited to 24 students per class and will fill up quickly.
- When are courses offered?
- You can find a list of all classes available here – Professional Development Robotics Academy Classes 2013
All ROBOTC related training is listed below:
Posterboard
Stream 
Month 
Agenda 
Announcing ROBOTC 4.0!
We are very excited to share details on ROBOTC 4.0!! This version of ROBOTC will be getting a lot of new features as well as some enhancements to favorite tools already included. Also included in this upgrade will be support for new hardware platforms, including the new VEX IQ and LEGO EV3.
Planned Features in 4.0:
- Overhauled Natural Language functionality to make learning how to program even easier.
- Motors and sensor setup that will automatically detect devices (with supported platforms/devices.)
- Enhanced drag and drop capability with our function library for new users.
- Updated text editor with code collapsing, improved auto-complete, and more user customizability.
- Even more sample programs to help users get started, including samples for new platforms and advanced programming concepts!
- Support for both VEX Cortex and VEX IQ in ROBOTC for VEX Robotics 4.0
- Support for both NXT and EV3 in ROBOTC for LEGO MINDSTORMS 4.0
- No-Cost standalone version of ROBOTC for VEX PIC for legacy users.
Pricing and final availability for 4.0 has not been finalized; however customers can feel secure buying ROBOTC today knowing they will get a full ROBOTC 4.0 upgrade as soon as it is available.
Current ROBOTC Users Upgrade Details:
- 3.0 Perpetual Users (who purchased in 2013): No upgrade fee! Full purchase price will be applied towards same type of license for 4.0.
- 3.0 Annual Users (who purchased in 2013): 50% discount on equivalent 4.0 License
- 3.0 Perpetual Users (who purchase before 2013): 50% discount on equivalent 4.0 License
If you own a license to ROBOTC 3.xx – You can continue to use 3.xx for as long as you would like (assuming you have a perpetual license) – the software will not stop working once 4.xx is released. However, if you wish to use the features and platforms available in ROBOTC 4.xx, you will have to purchase an upgrade at a significant discount.
Upgrades will be available for up to 6 months after the official release of ROBOTC 4.0. Stay tuned to the ROBOTC.net Blog – We will be releasing free beta versions throughout the Summer and will announce final pricing and availability details in the near future.
Robotics Teacher Appreciation Week Challenge
Teacher Appreciation Week is May 6th – 10th and we are celebrating! We LOVE all teachers and appreciate everything they do for their students! Here at the Robotics Academy, we have a special place in our hearts for robotics teachers, mentors and coaches, so this year we want to make sure they get the attention they deserve.
Do you know an amazing robotics teacher, mentor, or coach? Let us know who they are and why they are AWESOME! Send us your best story, pictures, and/or video about this person to socialmedia@cs2n.org. We will share several of these stories on the CMU’s Robotics Academy blog during Teacher Appreciation Week. And the Top Three Stories, voted by us, will each WIN one Classroom Annual License for Robot Virtual Worlds for their teacher/mentor/coach!
Stories must be submitted by Wednesday, May 8th at 5pm Eastern Standard Time. We will announce the winners on Friday, May 10, 2013.
Please include contact information (name and email/school phone number) for the teacher, mentor, or coach that you’re writing about so we can make sure to get their permission to publish their name on our site. You can send any questions to socialmedia@cs2n.org.
Robot Virtual Worlds Measurement Toolkit
We recently added a great new feature to our Robot Virtual Worlds … the Measurement Toolkit! There is no more guessing on how far a robot needs to travel to solve programming problems. It allows for intelligent path planning and navigation. You can now have students do the math, show their work, and explain how they solved the problems.
Check out our newest video that talks about what the measurement toolkit can do in RVW!
ROBOTC Google Hangout – Tomorrow 4pm EST
Join us for a fun Google Hangout tomorrow at 4pm EST on our ROBOTC’s Hangouts Page! We’ll announce the ROBOTC annual license winner from the Robot Virtual Worlds webinar series, answer questions, talk about ROBOTC 4.0, the World Competitions, and many other fun topics!
P.S. You still have time to fill out the surveys to be entered in the drawing (and find our 15% of RVW discount code.) Check out our webinar series on our YouTube page -http://www.youtube.com/robomatterinc
FTC Worlds 2013 Recap
We had a great time at the 2013 FTC World Championship last week! It was awesome seeing so many teams using ROBOTC on their computers. We really enjoyed meeting all the different teams and hearing your stories. We will have interviews posted from the event in the next couple weeks. Thank you to every one who stopped by to say hi and congrats to EVERY team. Also thank you to FIRST and FTC for inviting us to be a part of such an awesome event. We look forward to next year!
Check out our short recap video:
And if you haven’t had a chance, head on over to our Facebook page to check out our photo album – FIRST World Championship 2013
Final Robot Virtual World Google Hangout Tonight!
We will be hosting our final April Robot Virtual Worlds Google hangout tonight at 6pm EST! We will be discussing the competition environments in RVW. This will be your last chance to enter the ROBOTC annual license drawing and get your 15% off discount code for Robot Virtual Worlds! Join us at http://www.robotc.net/hangouts
If you missed any of that past hangouts, check them out here …
Week 1 – What is RVW?
Week 2 – Curriculum Companion
Week 3 – Level Builder with Model Importer
Week 4 – Gaming Environments
Week 5 – Competition Environments
TETRIX Curiosity Rover Programmed with ROBOTC
We ran into Paul Utley from Pitsco at the 2013 FIRST Championship who designed a model of the Curiosity Rover with TETRIX parts, NXT brick, and programmed in ROBOTC! We were lucky enough to get a short interview with him about it. Check it out here …
If you are at the 2013 FIRST Championship in St. Louis, MO., make sure to stop by and check it out in person. For more information on Tetrix go to http://www.tetrixrobotics.com
Samostat.c Program Fix – 4/24/13
We have recently been made aware of a bug in the samostat.c program in ROBOTC 3.60 that is preventing it from displaying the correct information on the NXT screen. Due to this bug being discovered at the beginning of the FTC Worlds Championship, we are making this easy fix public knowledge instead of pushing out an update. To fix the samostat.c program bug, simply follow the steps below:
1) Open the samostat.c program in ROBOTC by navigating to the ‘File -> Open Sample Program -> Samantha Module -> samostat.c’ program file.
2) Navigate to the ‘nxtDisplayTextLine(status.nLine, “%s”, status.message);‘ line in task main (line 69 by default). Add an ampersand (&) to the ‘status.message‘ and change it to ‘&status.message‘ (no quotation marks).
Add an ampersand to the front of ‘status.message’ to change it to ‘&status.message’ on the nxtDisplayTextLine(status.nLine, “%s”, status.message); line (line 69).
3) Save the file to finalize the changes and make sure to compile and download it to your NXT brick.
We apologize for any inconveniences this may have cause. Please email our support team directly at support@robotc.net if you encounter any other issues or bugs.
Robot Virtual Worlds Google Hangout TONIGHT 6PM!
Hey everyone! Hope you had an awesome weekend. Just a friendly reminder that we’ll be having another fun Robot Virtual Worlds’ Google Hangout at 6pm EST tonight. We will be talking about the gaming environment within RVW and showing off Palm Island, Operation Reset, the Measurement Toolkit, badges, and a lot more! We look forward to having you attend and join in on the discussion! Visit http://ROBOTC.net/hangouts to join us and watch the live video stream.
P.S. Robot Virtual Worlds website has been revamped and is now live! Check it out at http://www.robotvirtualworlds.com
