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Carnegie Mellon University Spin-off BirdBrain Technologies Launches Hummingbird Duo through Engineering and Technology Education Kickstarter Project

Carnegie Mellon University Spin-off BirdBrain Technologies Launches Hummingbird Duo through Engineering and Technology Education Kickstarter Project

Electronics kit is equally challenging and fun for 4th graders, high school students, and adults

Pittsburgh, PA, May 21, 2014 — BirdBrain Technologies is excited to announce that Hummingbird Duo is launching on Kickstarter. The Hummingbird Duo may be the first electronics kit that is fun and educational for a fourth grader, a high school student, a college engineering student, and an adult maker. The Hummingbird Duo provides several levels of engineering and technology learning. Instead of a steep learning curve, learners progress at increasing skill levels where mastering each level allows one to use the Hummingbird in a new and more interesting way. By participating in the Kickstarter campaign, individuals can purchase the forthcoming Hummingbird Duo at a pre-launch price for themselves or provide one to a school of their choice.

The Hummingbird Duo includes many of the features requested by BirdBrain Technologies’ core community of teachers: Tetherless operation, Arduino mode, and more minor improvements like wheels for motors, solid-ended leads, improved sound sensing, and color-coding of the connectors by function. “We are extremely excited about the Hummingbird Duo’s potential to empower positive classroom experiences and to grow with students as they learn,” said Tom Lauwers, BirdBrain Technologies founder and co-creator of the Hummingbird. “The Hummingbird Duo is an excellent kit for introducing electronics, robotics, engineering, and programming in any environment: at home, in the classroom, in summer camp, or in a club.”

The Hummingbird Duo controller will be the core of all new Hummingbird Robotics kits. Hummingbird Duo supports programming environments that range from very easy to advanced and powerful. Everything is free, open source, and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. The Hummingbird supports CREATE Lab Visual Programmer, Scratch, Snap!, Arduino, Python, Java, and more.

The Hummingbird Robotics Kit was developed as part of Art & Bots, an ongoing research project at Carnegie Mellon University. Compatible with popular maker tools and software like Raspberry Pi, MaKey MaKey, Arduino, and Scratch, Hummingbird introduces students to engineering design, electronics, and programming through an innovative, arts and crafts-based approach that integrates well with the core subjects.

To learn more about BirdBrain Technologies’ Kickstarter campaign, visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/938274194/hummingbird-duo-a-robotics-kit-for-ages-10-to-110.

About BirdBrain Technologies
At BirdBrain Technologies, we are committed to technological excellence for students and educators. Our passion is to instill an innovative maker mentality in students and to foster a project-based learning approach in everyday classrooms. We are devoted to integrating engineering and computer science with traditional core subjects by creating robots and electronics that can foster natural interdisciplinary projects.

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