During the summer, robotics teacher Peter Park attended two robotics training workshops provided by Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) Robotics Academy. The purpose of the training was to obtain VEX CORTEX ROBOTC teacher certification.

VEX, a microcontroler for a robotics system, is widely used in middle and high schools as part of the robotics curriculum. CORTEX is the latest version of VEX. ROBOTC is the programming language used in different academic robotics platforms like VEX.

The first week-long session was held at Maui Preparatory Academy in June for Hawaii teachers. The second was held in the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) in Pittsburgh, Penn., in July, part of the CMU Robotics Institute.

Park said,  “I appreciated traveling to Pittsburgh because I was surrounded by real-world robot research and commercialization projects. There were robotics teachers from all across the nation, including Canada, and it was a very good opportunity to network with them.”

“I felt very supported by the school to make investments for my professional development. I enjoyed learning something new and gained knowledge and confidence, which I think will be helpful in my future teaching,” said Park.