No fear: University of Minnesota Robotics Day Camp introduces local youth to hands-on technologies

Abstract

Women and minorities are underrepresented in the IT field at the high school, university, and industry levels. Efforts to address this imbalance are often too late to solve underlying problems such as perceived ineptitude and actual inexperience. By designing and hosting a program for these underrepresented students in the middle grades, the Center for Distributed Robotics at the University of Minnesota hopes to establish a successful annual robotics day camp which would inspire both women and minorities to pursue careers in technology. Detailed accounts of the goals and methodology are provided. Initial survey results reveal a very positive response from the campers as well as strengths and weaknesses which would be useful in designing or refining similar camps