Goal
You are the chosen ones, who can create the next generation of educational robots, what Codecool will also use in the next 18 months during your studies. In the next week, you are going to:
- Plan how a MentorBot should work at Codecool, based upon how an ideal mentor should act like
- Implement your plans with Mentor++™, and constantly test your implementation on the MentorBot assigned to you
- Demonstrate your work, and your MentorBot to all others at the end of the week
MentorBot™
The robots being used at Codecool are called MentorBot™. MentorBots can be programmed with a simple language called Mentor++™. To create and upload your program to MentorBots, you don’t have to use a computer. MentorBots have extremely good sensors, and they can update their internal software only by reading the new codebase on paper.
Details
The first two days of the Orientation Days will introduce you to Codecool, how things are going here, what are our core values and get to know each other. The next three days will be themed around the MentorBots.
Planning day
On the planning day, your team should decide which events should an ideal MentorBot handle from the list of Mentor++’s events. You also have to plan how a MentorBot should act when the specified event happens (for example does it slap the Codecooler when someone behavior cannot be accepted or jumps out of the window instead?). You also have to think about what an ideal MentorBot should do before/after work.
Implementation day
You have the whole day for the implementation. Naturally, you are not alone in your mission: mentors are distributed between the teams. They have two roles:
- They’ll help you in answering all your questions coming up
- They are MentorBots as well, so when you’d like to test your program, just give it to them, and they will process your orders
By the end of the day, you should have your programs created and written on A4 papers.
Demonstration day
The demonstration day is about showing your results to the whole class. Don’t be afraid, you’ll have time for the preparation, and the mentors help in what they can.
The demo is 8 minutes sharp for each team. Your team should select a speaker, who introduces the team, and the basic concepts (and custom features) of your MentorBot (in max 2 minutes). After the introduction, the real demo starts (6 minutes sharp). The team will act as regular Codecoolers generating events for the MentorBot to handle. The speaker comments on what is happening, and the MentorBot’s code is projected so that everyone can see it.