Programming has traditionally been confined to a written form. Even programming tools aimed for kids, such as MIT Scratch, are usually intangible “drag and drop” programs. Because of this, coding is mostly only accessible to reading/writing learners. We hope to solve this dilemma by liberating coding from its written medium through the use of tangible building blocks. Kids will be able to connect these smart blocks together and build real programs that control a real robot. This will better engage visual and kinesthetic learners and allow children to be introduced to the field of programming at a younger age. Additionally, by freeing the process of programming from the personal computer’s screen, we will make coding more collaborative and exciting.

Two of our team members worked on a project with a similar idea during Build18 in 2019. Due to inexperience and time/money constraints, our solution contained too many uncertainties, and we didn’t finish our MVP. For capstone, we are completely rethinking our designs and hope to have a solid, working project by the end of the semester.