LONGMONT — There will be a new presence weaving its way among the Longmont Public Library bookshelves before the end of the year, if Jalali Hartman and his cadre of engineers have anything to say about it.
Hartman’s company, Robauto, is working with the library to create a robot that can help children with autism spectrum disorder break barriers that many of them have with communication and social interaction. To do this, Hartman gathers a majority of the 10-member Innovation Team at the downtown TinkerMill space on Sunday afternoons, where they get to work designing and building the robot — under the watchful eye of their parents.
The Innovation Team is uniquely qualified to know what kind of robot could help kids on the autism spectrum because, while it is open to anyone from seventh to 12th grades, it is mostly composed of kids on the autism spectrum.
Working on the robot teaches not only computer science, engineering and entrepreneurial skills, but it gives the kids a place where they belong, Hartman said.
“It’s creating a group where they feel like they’re a part of it and actually could earn a living potentially,” Hartman said. “I mean, we have 12-year-old kids programming right now that are honestly better than people out of college.”
Quin Weadley, 13, said he has learned the programming language Scratch and picked up a on a few others since starting with the Innovation Team.
“I’m glad it’s inclusive for people to join,” said Quin Weadley, who is on the autism spectrum. “I’m glad Jalali is being accepting of people with autism. Emotions like happy I’m not good with. I’m better at, like, math and science but not good with emotions. I don’t feel too many emotions.”
Now, Hartman is fundraising and gauging interest for the new crop of seventh- to 12th-graders in the Longmont-Boulder-Denver area interested in robotics.
