College robots, tweaked with Scratch, inspire younger students

A student works on a laptop with Scratch programming as an MBot robot sets off into a maze made of plastic barriers.
A Center for Success student runs their Scratch program on an MBot to have it autonomously navigate the maze. Courtesy Brody Riopelle.

Brody Riopelle (CE 2024) recently proved that MBots, a University of Michigan educational robotics platform designed for teaching robotics to undergraduate and graduate students, could be simplified to introduce younger students without any programming knowledge to robotics.

By using Scratch, a coding language with a simple visual interface, Riopelle worked with the Center for Success Network to bring the exploration of robotics to a more elementary level.

Riopelle now works as an engineer in the U-M Robotics Department under the guidance of Chad Jenkins, professor of robotics, with support from the Sloan Foundation. He became involved with the Center for Success Network in Pontiac, MI, through his high school teacher, Serge Danielson-Francois. Together, they brainstormed ideas for establishing a robotics camp for underserved students and collaborated with Kendra Pitts, the Community Literacy Program Coordinator at the Center for Success.

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