From a hackathon to a class at ITBA with the Go2

On June 3 Google came to ORT for a hackathon: a talk about its video-making tool and then a group activity using it. The activity didn't go well for us: the tool didn't run properly on the computer we had.

At the time we were building Gemm Blocks, an editor to program the Go2 with blocks, without writing code. So we did something else: we showed it to the people giving the talk. That conversation led to an invitation to teach a class at ITBA.

June 13, ITBA

Ten days later Matías, from the Gemm team, and I took the Go2 to ITBA for the Robotito program. It was a morning with students who were just getting started in robotics, and the main tool was Gemm Blocks. We had three goals:

• —Introduce them to robotics.
• —See whether Gemm Blocks was easy for someone just starting out.
• —Take home feedback from students and teachers.

It was the first time people outside the team used the editor. Gemm later changed direction —the focus moved to industrial plants and the G1 humanoid— but that morning was the first sign that what we were building was useful to someone else. Gemm Blocks is still online at blocks.gemm.ar.

What I take from it

• —The most valuable part of an event isn't always the scheduled activity. Sometimes it's who's in the room.
• —Bring something that works. An editor people can try opens conversations a slide doesn't.
• —The first outside validation didn't come from a pitch: it came from kids using the tool with the robot in front of them.