Workshops and Events
LEGO Rovers is happy to make school visits and attend other events. We are free of charge to schools and any event which does not charge an entrance fee so long as the location is in the Merseyside or Greater Manchester area. If you want to book LEGO Rovers for an event please contact Louise Dennis, louise.dennis@manchester.ac.uk
We are happy, within reason, to work with organisations in order to tailor our activity to your event, however LEGO Rovers does come in two standard forms which have proven successful.
Workshops
We can deliver LEGO Rovers as a 45 minute workshop for novice programmers. Attendees will work in groups of 2-4 with a robot and will be taken through: controlling a robot; controlling a robot on the Moon; the use of sensors; and programming simple tasks. The workshop concludes with a question and answer session. Workshop numbers are limited to 30 attendees. We provide all the necessary equipment for workshops but do need a suitable amount of space for the number of attendees: this can either be arranged around tables or in a clear area of floor. We also need access to at least one power socket.
When delivering workshops in schools we prefer to work with years 3-8 and expect at least one teacher to be present at all times to handle classroom management issues.
Stands
We can deliver LEGO Rovers as a "drop-in" stand that can be set up as part of a larger event. The stand consists of a custom table with three robots. Passers-by can drive the robots "as if they were on the Moon" (i.e., using the Earth-Moon communication delay). We can also demonstrate simple autonomous tasks such as obstacle avoidance and line following, and let people try out simple programming of the robot. In general most people spend about 5 minutes at the activity, though this can vary depending upon the level of interest and how busy the event is. The stand is generally most popular with families with primary school aged children. An expert in Artificial Intelligence is generally available with the stand in order to answer more general questions about Robotics and Autonomous Systems.
Because the drop-in stand involves a custom table, plus a number of banners and other material, it is important that we can have vehicular access to the event venue and there should be somewhere nearby where we can park for the duration of the event.
