This Ebola-fighting robot nurse was designed by kids

Meet ANA, a robot with no arms.
Her mission? To bring food and medication to Ebola patients in hospitals.
Her creators? A team of 8- to 12-year-olds, coached by Fairfax-based Infamous Robotics.
At the company’s after-school and summer programs, “we teach our children about the various parts that go into a robot,” said founder and CEO Anthony Nunez.
Once they’ve acquired the skills, the magic is in their hands.
Infamous Robotics’ calling card is the Inventors Club, an eight-month program that leads the children to compete at the Smithsonian’s “Invent It” challenge in April.
Last year’s team designed a robot that helped blind people shop in supermarkets, Nunez said.
This year’s team created ANA, the Autonomous Nurse Assistant. Watch:

The Robotics Inventors Club’s 10 whiz kids designed the robot from A to Z, “from the circuits to the coding to how the robot is going to look,” said Nunez. All while dealing with constraints of the adult world.
“They’re setting deadlines, they’re meeting deadlines,” said Nunez. “They’re presenting the robotics, practicing talking about the robotics.”
And they wrote 400 lines of code.
“It’s like a startup company run by children,” said Nunez.
This year, the hard work paid off: the club won the Smithsonian’s “Invent It” challenge in the team 11- to 13-year-old category.

Now, Infamous Robotics is going after its own prize. It’s competing to win a $100,000 grant from JPMorgan Chase. Voting closes Friday, June 19.

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The company was founded in 2010, and started out by offering Girl Scouts courses. Now, it includes after-school programs and summer camps on the George Mason University campus in Fairfax.

Infamous Robotics encourages children to see the beauty in technology through a program that encompasses the STEM subjects, but also art, Nunez said.

The Fairfax-based group is hoping to expand its work in D.C., and “grab all these students who are out there, who have that passion and want to change the world,” said Nunez.