Summer Camp for Robots--and Kids

A two-week Robot Summer Camp for ages 5 to 16 is under way at the California Museum of Science and Industry, sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the University of Southern California.

The event is the first of its kind, according to organizers, and uses robots as teaching tools for helping students learn biological, mathematical, engineering and programming concepts.

Camp participants are experimenting in a laboratory created for the sessions that contains more than $1 million worth of equipment.

The camp’s program was developed by robotics expert K. G. Engelhardt of NASA. She said her aim was to create a forum to get students excited about science and technology and to introduce service robots, which work with and act as extensions of humans, including people with disabilities.

Activities include learning about human and robot behavior by inventing and building robots, comparing the intelligence of humans and computers and learning how humans and robots see, hear and touch by studying high-tech robots in action.

It is hoped that the camp curriculum will provide a model for schools nationwide.