WV State Fair Overview
RTI kicked off their involvement in the WV State Fair on Sat Aug. 13. The state fair is held every year in Lewisburg, WV.
RTI teamed up with Marshall University for their presentation throughout the week.
This partnership won both the University and RTI the blue ribbon prize for best presentation at the fair.
The award was granted on the basis of friendly, approachable staff, a fun/technology based presentation
and activities that appealed to both adults and children.
RTI's involvement headed up the technology side
of the Marshall University tent.
LEGO robotics were among some of those technology based
activities.
The tent included 2 computers which guests could use
to teleoperate LEGO City at RTI
or they were introduced to the small LEGO robot on hand
and shown ways in which to control it.
To operate the robot, guests were shown RoboLab, a program
that is used to create and download different
programs to the LEGO robot.
Most guests were fascinated to see the robot download
a program that allowed it to follow a black line -
comments from children were "it's like magic" "make
it do it again."
LEGO robotics in general does appeal more to children
and many special Teleoperator licenses were handed out throughout the week.
Once children become interested in the workings of the
robot, it often got parents to become
more curious and involved as well. Many educators
wanted to know ways in which they could
bring LEGO Robotics to their school and in what ways
LEGO Robotics could help educate students. On hand to answer
questions throughout the week were Errin Jewell, Public
Affairs/DTP specialist,
Frank Adkins, Educational Outreach Coordinator,
LeAndria Reed, Kate Jordan, graduate assistant,
Ashlee Gibson, undergraduate assistant and Kevin Pack,
undergraduate assistant.
As people were teleoperating on our end at the
fair, Linda Hamilton, LEGO Specialist in Huntington, WV
managed the LEGO City Fair back at MU RTI headquarters.
The following pictures show what we were making happen
on her end.
Click
for larger view.
