Shoutout to San Francisco-based RobotsLAB, which sells a robot kit designed to help demonstrate high school math concepts, for clinching top marks in the SXSWedu LAUNCHedu event.
SXSWedu, a four-day edtech extravaganza, held its third annual startup pitchfest as part of the four-day conference. Approximately 80 companies applied to take part; 10 companies were invited to pitch to panels of business leaders and educators.
The 10 finalists were:
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Admittedly: Platform for helping "matchmake" students with appropriate colleges;
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Books That Grow: Product, "Borne Digital," in a e-book platform for the iPad with built-in assessments to tune reading level of the book to students' skill levels;
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Classroom IQ: Tools for helping teachers grade free-response tests more efficiently;
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eduvee: A platform that breaks biology, cheminstry and physics content into "atomic" chunks to help students study;
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Fluencia: A language learning tool for students studying conversational Spanish;
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NBA Math Hoops: A nonprofit developing a basketball-themed board game and mobile app for supporting curriculum in grades 4-6;
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Proctor.io Remote Proctor: A proctoring system for monitoring students taking assessments remotely (or in online classes);
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Qlovi: Large library of e-books with aligned Common Core assessments;
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RobotsLAB: Robot kits that teachers can use to teach high-school math concepts through the practical application of robots;
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UnlockYourBrain: Mobile phone app that "unlocks" your phone by giving you adaptive math and vocabulary quizzes.
Judges winnowed down the competitors to three--Admittedly, Proctor.io and RobotsLAB--before selecting the robot company as the top pick. RobotsLAB CEO Elad Inbar received a $2500 check, presented by Samsung Electronics of America, as a prize. The RobotsLAB standard kit sells for $3,500 apiece, and is geared toward middle school and high school teachers and students.
Following the event, Inbar said that his company would donate one kit to a school in a drawing. Schools can participate by visiting here and sending a message. Inbar explains, "In the Describe Request section, mention either SXSW Edu or LAUNCHedu, and they will be eligible for the drawing to win a the RobotsLAB BOX." Likewise, educators can visit the RobotsLAB Twitter page and send a tweet to @TheRobotsLAB with the hashtags #SXSW or #LAUNCHedu. Submissions will be accepted until midnight (PST) on March 15th, and the winner will be announced on Monday, March 17th on RobotsLAB's blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts. Good luck!
