Background

This upcoming 2017 season will be the first year of Unified Robotics in Iowa. Unified Robotics is already an upstanding successful organization in Washington, Texas, Hawaii, and Oklahoma.

Currently in Iowa, there is not a robotics program for high school special needs students. These students can be on other robotics teams, but because of the competitive nature and many other students, the special needs student is not able to have their voice heard. They may become discouraged and do not get the same positive experience as others. Unified Robotics will allow special needs students to brainstorm, design, build and program their very own LEGO® robot. This will give the student opportunities to build relationships with others, improve teamwork skills and leadership along with skills directly related to the robot. These are skills like building with Legos, designing, problem solving, and programming. Then at the competition, students will have to talk to judges and other teams which works on communication skills. These are many skills that all high school students in robotics experience and will need to be successful later in life.

There are no geographical boundaries for Unified Robotics. Any school or organization across Iowa can have teams! Unified Robotics Iowa has the potential to reach more than 50 students this year and hopefully many more as the program grows in years to come.

Right now, Unified Robotics Iowa is being coordinated by FTC team 9575, Illuminerdy Confirmed team leader, Maya Sahu, coach, Carey Ann Sahu, Unified Robotics Washington and Special Olympics Iowa. Unified Robotics is part of the Unified Sports program through Special Olympics.

Involvement

Unified Robotics is a program that partners with FIRST® Robotics Competition or FIRST® Tech Challenge and Special Olympics. More specifically, the Special Olympics involvement is the Unified Sports® program.