VP Joe Biden sits with NAO and a STEM Student.
Coding is the language of the future. See how we're connecting students to computer science → http://t.co/Y1TXXnWdem pic.twitter.com/TZAtU0ziGJ
— Vice President Biden (@VP) December 8, 2014
Recently, the White House participated in “Hour of Code,” the online event that encouraged students to participate in the art, science, and engineering behind computer coding. During the event, University of Maryland’s (UMD’s) Control Systems Lab robot NAO (pronounced “now”) was introduced to Vice President Joe Biden.
NAO dances for STEM Students and Whitehouse staff.
The CoderDojo and Hour of Code STEM initiatives are very important to the engineering community. They help inspire the next generation of software, mechatronic, and mechanical engineers. Now that the organization, and similar organizations in the New York and New Jersey area, has met VP Biden that inspiration can only grow.
Biden tells computer code girls: "you're as smart as any guy." pic.twitter.com/EGJOwpe5J2
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) December 8, 2014
University of Maryland, Mechanical Engineering grad student Bryan Hays volunteers with CoderDojo. His work teaching students to program NAO can inspire those students to code for anything in the future, from satellites to manufacturing plant robots.
"The kids put together programs on their laptops, and then run the programs on the robot to control his actions and interactions,” Hays said. “They get to have fun learning. They are encouraged by their ability to build programs in the digital realm and see the robot bring their work to life in the physical world."
Source University of Maryland.