Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy

Use educational affordances of robotics to create CS-STEM opportunities for all learners

Kids programming a robot

June 27, 2023

Kids program robots at the Hazelwood Green's Summer Concert Series

By Vu Nguyen

HAZELWOOD GREEN, PITTSBURGH, PA - June 25, 2023 - Every summer, Hazelwood Local puts together community events at the Hazelwood Green. This past Sunday was the first of several Summer Concert Series events that included live music, activities/games for kids, food trucks, and local vendors selling goods or sharing information or resources.

Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy was invited to bring some activities for kids to get a chance to play with robots for the event, and we decided to bring some robots as well as laptops to play some of our Player Programmed Partner (P3G) Games. 200-300 people showed up, and plenty of kids within that group! Kids came by to try programming a LEGO SPIKE Prime robot around a space themed challenge board. They also played Acceleration City - a co-bot car game where students can complete races, challenges, or collect hidden "minanimals". Some kids ended up coming back to play some more! What a wonderful event !

There are more events planned during the Summer Concert Series events at the Hazelwood Green. Hazelwood Green is located right outside of the Mill 19, which houses organizations such as Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Innovation Center (RIC), Catalyst Connections, the ARM Institute, and Motional. The Mill 19 and the area around has big plans to develop publicly available spaces as well as a place for innovation "while remaining grounded in the principles of sustainability, equity, and inclusive economic opportunity."