Philly Robotics Expo at Penn kicks off Philly Tech Week tomorrow

Mixing robots and the University of Pennsylvania is a great way to start off Philly Tech Week Presented by AT&T tomorrow.

Kicking the week off this year will be the fourth annual Philly Robotics Expo (PRX) Friday. For the last three years, PRX had been located on the campuses of Drexel University but this year Penn’s GRASP Lab is taking their turn at hosting.

Organized by Central High School‘s robotics team, the RoboLancers, and its teacher adviser Daniel Ueda, The Philly Robotics Expo is aimed at children and teens in grades K-12 and seeks to give STEM students a unique opportunity to explore the fields of robotics and engineering. Students from five Southeastern PA counties and Camden, N.J. will converge on the University of Pennsylvania for tours, workshops and competitions throughout the day. About 750 students attended last year’s expo.

PRX is open to everyone but groups need to register (and registration is now closed). One of the exhibits will be the FIRST Lego League challenge. The challenge consists of multiple parts including a game where FIRST teams program autonomous robots constructed using Lego Mindstorms construction kits to accomplish tasks and score points on a themed playing field.

Students will also get to experience robotics demonstrations by the Penn GRASP lab, participate in hands-on robotics activities and operate robots on a FIRST Tech Challenge playing field.