Welcome to the Tuks Robot School webpage!

Have you ever wondered how a robot is built from scratch? Or how it is possible that a dead piece of electronics is able to detect phenomena in the world around us? Join the Tuks Robot Schools for a mini-course that will take you through all the basic steps of building a simple self-navigating robot. Robot School classes cover 3D design and printing of the robot chassis, constructing the electronics of the robot, assembling the robot, programming an Arduino microcontroller development board to make the robot follow a track and testing the robot. If you have always dreamt of following a career in technology, this is your chance to start the journey!

Taking hands to serve the community 

The Tuks Robot School is a joint initiative among

• the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering,
• the EBIT Faculty-wide second-year community service module JCP203,
• the University's Unit for Community Engagement,
• KTG, and
• the Department of African Languages, who joined us on a journey to make the Robot and Sensor School material available in the languages spoken by the people of our beautiful country.

The project, which was inspired by the popular Annual Third-Year Robot Race (see below), was initiated at the start of 2021 and aims to provide a platform through which EBIT students can serve the community by presenting fun STEM education activities to school learners.

The curricula were designed by University staff in collaboration with postgraduate students and centre around low-cost hardware platforms with accessibility in mind. Apart from the postgraduate students, some of our senior undergraduate students also help to create the hardware and are involved in training the junior community service students who present the course content to the learners. 

The first Tuks Robot School in session at the University of Pretoria community gardens, Moja Gabedi.

Who may join?

The Tuks Robot School has two streams:

• a community outreach stream offered on invitation to partner schools in and around Pretoria through the University's community engagement courses, and
• a public stream for grade 9 to 11 learners and interested educators. 

Community Engagement

The curriculum targets grade 9 to 11 learners.