Welcome!

We are Stan & Anna Khaykin, founders of Great Minds Robotics.

The idea for our learning center came from the desire that our own children be up-to-date on their technical knowledge when it was time to enter college or go to work. We tried local computer and robotics clubs and discovered it was not practical for them to deliver the depth and immersion we were seeking. We wanted our daughter and son to see how computers work and how to program them. We really wanted them to understand the critical thinking behind making a computer do what they wanted it to do. We decided to teach them ourselves and make it fun at the same time.

Shortly thereafter, Great Minds Robotics was born. Stan developed a fantastic curriculum based on many years of real-world programming experience and principles of STEM education. Anna, who holds an MBA degree, furthered the idea into a viable business.

We opened our doors in December of 2009 with just six students, and since then something awesome has happened: our own two kids and hundreds of other students are on their way to creating future technology instead of just using it.

Teaching hundreds of kids requires qualified help. We quickly realized that in order to deliver the quality of program our clients became accustomed to, our instructors must know quite a bit of programming before we hire them, and must be extensively and continously trained. Most importantly, they must love robotics and programming. We're proud to say that our team fits the bill and more - our instructors are future software developers and engineers. We continously improve not just their knowledge of programming, but their understanding of how to best convey that knowledge to a young student.

Our students learn the basics of mechanical engineering and design as it applies to LEGO robotics. They learn how to build robots that work. These machines will do exactly the tasks for which they are designed. They will be as complex as necessary while being as simple as possible. They will be efficient, reliable and effective. Students start with building simple models by following instructions, and eventually advance to designing and building complex devices and creating digital instructions for their creations using 3D CAD design tools.

Computer programming is a key component of robotics. Our method for teaching kids computer programming is simple and effective. We teach students basic concepts of programming using LEGO® Mindstorms NXT robots and specialized programming languages, such as NXT-G (a visual language) and RobotC (a text-based language).

Students advance in our program at their own pace, and as their knowledge and understanding of programming grows, we introduce them to real-world object-oriented languages, such as C# and Java. Student can program more than just robots – concepts we teach are necessary for creating real-world applications that run on Windows PCs and phones, Xbox 360s, Macs, iPhones and iPads, Android phones and tablets, and more. In fact, our advanced students can make simple Xbox and Android games – and some of them are not even in high school yet!

We realize all of the above sounds like a lot for a young student to digest. Fortunately we know the recipe to make programming and engineering fun and easy to consume. We look forward to enrolling your child into our program.