Robots come to life at library

Yellow miniature robots on wheels steered around the legs of tipped-over chairs and came to rest inside a square outlined on the floor as students saw their coding come to life at the Franklin branch of the Johnson County Public Library.

It was the second day of a five-day robot camp at the library branch, with students practicing basic programming after they built the robots on Monday. The five-hour daily sessions this week including creating more advanced programs until Friday, when they’ll be assigned a challenge by instructor Jacob Lovrinic, a Center Grove High School graduate who now attends Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis.

With Johnson County schools on fall break, students explored the world of robotics design and programming. Kazutaka Suzuki, a sixth grader at Center Grove Middle School Central, was drawn to the camp after he attended a camp for Roblox, a game creation system, he said.

“I like using technology a lot,” Suzuki said. “It’s a wonder how you can connect millions of people in the world from a flipped open screen and keyboard. Building the robots, it was confusing but when you get to a certain point you get the feeling of accomplishment and it makes you feel good.”

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For other campers, this week is their first time working with robots, as was the case of 16-year-old Levi Havekost, who is homeschooled and whose mother signed him up as a surprise, he said.

“I didn’t know I was doing it until a couple days before, but it’s been a lot of fun,” Havekost said. “Programming has been the most fun, and I can see all my work coming to fruition.”

Lovrinic’s non-profit maker space company, Makera, bought the parts for 11 robots and will be reimbursed by the Johnson County Public Library from a $450 grant. Lovrinic has other ventures with Makera that include installing arcade machines at his college and at a bar in Fountain Square, but as a former member of the Center Grove High School robotics team, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to teach children about robots, he said.

“It’s problem solving and learning with hands-on stuff. Classrooms can’t really capture the learning you get from physically working with your hands. I showed them how to do a basic concept, and they’re working on an obstacle course now,” Lovrinic said.

“I did robot camps when I was little and it always felt like a cop out. You would build a kit-robot and play with it. This is not just playing with robots. This is learning how to program, think, with a programmatic approach with steps and determining how to do things.”

As the week goes on, student learn more advanced programming which can teach robots how to detect and avoid obstacles and make decisions on which direction to go based on the path ahead, he said.

The robotics camp gives students an advantage of having some basic knowledge before they join a robotics team at their school, said Kaleb Tisdale, a junior at Center Grove High School who served as an assistant at the robotics camp.

“I was never able to learn about coding and whatnot before high school,” Tisdale said. “I think being able to teach kids gives them a step up when doing that sort of stuff.”