What does it take to create a remote-controlled robot that can walk, drive and turn in any direction? Reach out for, grab, throw or release objects on command? Move and act as YOU design and build them to?

Imagination, technology, teamwork, and a whole lot of fun!

Working in teams, we’ll teach you how to design, build and test remote controlled miniature robots. Your robot will compete with other robots in your class in a friendly competition on the last day of camp. All necessary materials, including motors, gears, pulleys, wheels and axles, and microcomputers will be available for student use. It will be up to you and your teammates to put them all together in original ways to make your robot do what you want it to.

A few words from Dan Taglia ...

Well, folks, we are still the only ones offering the most exciting "Robotics Program" going on in the Houston area. The Robotics Summer Camps that we have offered since 2001 were so successful, along with the after-school programs we do in the Houston area school districts and private schools, that we are again offering our Robotics Summer Camps the whole 2006 summer. Our camps will be offered in several convenient locations with our two main camps at the MET and the Joy private schools. Our camps will offer classes ranging from Apprentice Robotics”, to our upper levels: “Freshman”, “Sophomore”, and “Junior” camps. Adding to the list of awesome offerings, we are now introducing four new camps that will excite and challenge any lego robotic enthusiast. Check our schedule for more details and the listing of the other camps we offer in other areas of Houston , from Clear Lake to the Woodlands and Missouri City to Beaumont.

Our classes teach students to understand "how things work" through hands-on activities that demonstrate the principles of simple and motorized machines. They gain experience with design and problem solving through the use of gears, motors, wheels and axles, pulleys, and remote control devices. Working in teams of three, students learn a variety of ways to design a robot to do the things they want it to do. They decide and build, as a team, the best design of their robot for the competition to be held at the end of each class session.

All American Robotics Academy camps are designed around a curriculum that enables students to take a full day/week program or choose to enroll in just morning or afternoon classes.

Our Mission

Our mission at American Robotics Academy ® is to excite, inspire, and motivate young people about the fun, importance and impact of robotics technology in today's world. We hope to stimulate their imagination and creativity by encouraging them to explore, experience, and express themselves through our hands-on interactive robotics program. Held in a friendly, sports-like atmosphere, we focus on team-building, problem solving, creativity and fun. Students will be working with the widely known and popular plastic LEGO building blocks, including the more specialized pieces such as axles, gears, beams, wheels, motors, microcomputers, pneumatics and other parts that will enable them to safely create animated and exciting mechanical movements and other effects. The LEGO Technic System has been adopted as the standard material for robotic designers, because of their sophisticated and powerful set of mechanical design components. The fact that they can be disassembled and reconfigured as necessary is essential in testing, design, and instruction.

At American Robotics Academy ® , we can provide the guidance and confidence to build simple working robots, as well as the inspiration for more complex robotic inventions.

A Rewarding & Fulfilling Experience

Please allow me to share our views regarding behavioral expectations for our Robotics Camps. We want these classes to be rewarding and fulfilling for the students. In order to make this happen, please be mindful of behavioral guidelines which we feel will help promote a safe, orderly learning environment.

» Students should make every possible effort to be punctual and attend class as scheduled.

» An atmosphere of courtesy and respect for the teachers and other students will be adhered to at all times.

» Reservations will be taken on a first come, first served basis. Enrollment will be limited to a maximum of 15 students per session. We may cancel a class with less than 6 students registered. Click here for our registration form.

» Students should provide for their own lunch (sack lunch) if attending full day programs. » Students should arrive no earlier than ten minutes before class begins to permit our staff to prepare for the next class or session, parents are expected to pick up their child promptly at the scheduled time when classes end. Classes will end ten minutes early to give parents an opportunity to see their child's progress. We look forward to a very wonderful, productive and exciting workshop. Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions or concerns. Sincerely, Dan Taglia

American Academy of Robotics holds ribbon cutting, begins hiring new teachers

By Marilyn Ellis, Staff Writer May 20, 2004

The Katy Chamber of Commerce brought a 4-inch yellow ribbon and foot-and-a-half long scissors to mark the official opening of American Robotics Academy, May 12, an academy where children can learn how to make and program robots.

"Engineers said it couldn't be done,"said Dan Taglia, owner of the academy, "but I went ahead anyway, and let kids find out for themselves how to build robots."

Using the LEGO materials, Taglia began by fashioning robots of his own.

When he decided to teach children how to build robots, he forst took his program to his community church. Parents liked the program so much that he approached some private schools, which set up after-school programs with him.

Taglia also took his program to MD Anderson, and said, "The patients were young, and they were stuck there. When I brought stuff for them to build, their brothers and sisters started building robots, too. I think it helped them get their minds off things."

Taglia had been demonstrating his robots at schools for five years while working fulltime as a photographer at Conoco Oil Company. In the summer, he held 2-week summer camps.

Three years ago, Taglia took three weeks of vacation and held another summer camp. He said, "The classes were almost full.

"I knew I had hit on something, but was unwilling to quit my fulltime job."

However, when Conoco merged with Phillips Petroleum, Taglia's photography position was eliminated. He took early retirement, and opened the brick and mortar business, American Robotics Academy, in December 2002.

In 2003 Taglia held his first summer camp at the permanent building on Clay Road.

"In nine weeks, I had over 300 students," said Taglia, "and people came from Dallas and Louisiana."

Taglia said his robot building program used very little handbook and theory; instead it is a hands-on activity.

"Kids fumble around, have fun, and figure it out for themselves," he said, "The most reading they do is to follow the building instructions."

Taglia's programs always have a theme, so the young people about learn something that is needed in the world.

In the Robotics program for older children, Taglia said that the objective of the "Terrible Toxins" mission was to pick up a representation of a "toxic waste" container, drive it to a safe area and dump it without anybody touching the robot.

"In the 'Wacky Walkers' mission of Robotics Junior, the robot has to save an astronaut who has been stranded on a planet."

The robotics academy is growing, and to meet the need, Taglia held the first training session for science teachers on Saturday, May 15.

The teachers will then conduct robotics camps at their own schools at Galloway School, in Clear Lake, John Cooper School in The Woodlands, and Grace Presbyterian School near Beltway 8.

The Robotics program is for fourth through ninth grade, and is a 15-hour program which costs $135 for each level. For grades one through three, Robotics Junior is a 6-hour program and costs $70. Maximum class size is 15.

The Robotics program has four levels. In Level I students learn Mechanics and Pneumatics. In Level II, they program the robot by computer, and in Level III, students add light and touch sensors. By Level IV, the student builds a totally autonomous machine that runs completely by computer programming.

To contact American Robotics Academy, call 281-859-7626, and visit www.roboticsacademy.com for class schedules.

©Northwest Suburban News 2004