Camp Provides Robotics Lessons In Bentonville

BENTONVILLE -- Lessons in robotics and teamwork came together in a three-day summer camp for fifth- through eighth-graders this week.

Kaden Snitker, 12, said he wanted to get into the camp because it sounded "pretty cool." He ended up leading one of eight teams of kids assembling robots and programming them to perform tasks.

"There was a lot of teamwork involved. I'm not going to deny that," Kaden said.

The camp program, called "GoIT," was put on by Tata Consultancy Services, which describes itself as an information technology services, consulting and business solutions organization. The School District provided space for the camp at its TREC Center for Gifted and Talented Education.

Tata has offered similar programs in the Cincinnati area since 2009. It decided to branch out this year to 10 cities across North America. Bentonville happened to be one of them.

The camp, which is free to participants, is one way Tata tries to give back to the communities in which it has a presence, said Balaji Ganapathy, Tata's head of workforce effectiveness. The company's Bentonville office employs about 120 people.

It's also a way for the company to spread the word to young students about the careers available not only in computer science but in other fields involving science, technology, engineering and math, which are commonly grouped together by the acronym STEM.

"If you start early and help kids understand it, then you're at least starting them in the right direction," Ganapathy said. "We want kids to know this is not just for geeks and nerds. It's fun."

Ganapathy traveled to Bentonville from his New Jersey home to attend the last day of camp and listen to the multimedia presentations from each group about what they did and what they learned during the week.

Each group started the week by assembling a robot from a Lego Mindstorms Building Set. The teams then had to program the robots to compete in three challenges.

One challenge involved getting the robot to follow a squiggly red line drawn on a mat. Other challenges required the robot to knock over cups and find colored dots on a mat.

Teams were given points based on their performances in the challenges and their final presentations. Team 1 won and each member received a Nextbook tablet.

Mia Gutierrez, 12, was a member of the winning team. She enjoyed the GoIT camp.

"It's actually fun to do all this stuff," Mia said.

Kaden Snitker said being a team leader was a challenge at times.

"Everybody had their own ideas and wanted to do their own thing," he said.

Judy Marquess, a director of instruction for the School District, said Tata approached the district late last year with the idea of doing the camp in Bentonville. Once the district publicized it, the camp filled in less than 24 hours, Marquess said.

"They've been really good to work with," Marquess said.

Tata and district employees volunteered their time as camp staff members. Each volunteer went through 10 hours of training to prepare for the camp.

Ganapathy told kids, volunteer and parents gathered at Thursday's presentations Tata would donate each of the Lego Mindstorms Building Sets to the district. He also promised the camp would return to Bentonville next year.