IMS Museum hosts robotics summer camp

SPEEDWAY, Ind. (WTTV) — Theres a lot more to racing than driving and changing a tire, that’s what these middle school students are learning at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) Museum this week as their race cars take on this track.

Jacob Apollos, the Director of Education at the IMS Museum, says, ”They are seventh and eighth grade, so they’re right around the ages of 11 to 13 or so, and that’s what blows my mind.”

It’s not the roar of engines but the whirring of robots as they autonomously make their way around this race track. For the first time ever, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is hosting the Robo Racers Camp.

Ten kids are building their own robot race cars with sophisticated LEGO sets, and then coding them to go around the track as quickly as possible.

The whole week is leading up to Qualifying Thursday, in an Indy500 style track to see who will take home the trophy. Apollos leads the group.

So far, students Nick and Hunter have designed the fastest race car. They say, “It’s easier to code for two wheels rather than doing four or three, and then there’s a caster wheel on the back so it can turn,” and “We made it a T-Rex and gave it a head and tail.”

Apollos adds, ”Teaching that computational thinking and that step-by-step procedural thinking that goes into coding, that leads to our coders and computer designers of tomorrow.”

July 14-18, the IMS Museum has a Racing Careers Camp, where kids can learn about the behind-the-scenes parts of racing.