Tell us about the company and why you are attending MACH 2018?
We're in the education zone at MACH today and we are an educational robotics company, VEX Robotics. We offer educational robotics platforms from Key Stage Two through Key Stage Five, from VEX IQ, which is tool-less plastic platform which can be fully programed straight through to a metal VEX EDR platform, which covers up to university level.
What products are you highlighting today at MACH 2018?
We are running workshops for schools, basing them on our VEX IQ platform. One of the sessions is about getting students interacting with the product, getting them driving it around, getting them to understand how you would program something at this level, and then more of an in-depth hour workshop. We’re getting students to sit down and build a really basic model, and then have a little mini competition with their colleagues to see who can move rings into certain areas on the field.
What makes the product different from anything else on the market?
We offer a real scope from Key Stage Two straight through to the university level, so what we can offer is very simple programming right through to real C++ language, which is an industry standard. We're getting kids that are really interested in this type of thing. We're getting them ready for the world of work, especially if they are obviously working in a manufacturing industry.
Robotics is quite prevalent on everything, so getting kids started early with VEX IQ and VEX EDR means that they are already familiar with how mechanisms work and how they would actually venture into a career like things you can see at MACH.