Codie, the popular Hungarian invention

According to szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu, a young Hungarian man invented Codie, a robot that teaches computer coding to children. Ádám Lipécz is only 23 years old but Codie, his masterwork, is already becoming more and more famous all around the world.

What exactly is Codie? Codie is a robot created to help children learn the logic of coding while playing. It comes with a smartphone programming setting where users can put together their first instructions. Codie has similar sensors to smartphone sensors and thanks to the colourful app it is not only instructive but very entertaining as well.  It can be even used as a remote-controlled robot which is the most fun part. Codie teaches the basics of computer coding that improves the very beneficial analytic thinking.

Codie has been changing in the last three years because they wanted to develop a truly hard-wearing robot. The latest Codie is made of wood so that it is able to cope with falling on the ground. They also shrank its electronic system which makes the usage convenient. One of the most important developments was that the chain tracks became the most exterior element of the robot so that it doesn’t get stuck and it can also swing on an axis. “Codie looked like a tank for a while but it’s now looking much cuter. After all, it is a kids’ toy” said Ádám.

Szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu writes that Ádám studied at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics while teaching programming. He got the curriculum and he thought that it was definitely not the most exciting way of teaching. He realised that there was a gap because there was curriculum for those who wanted to learn coding and programming, but there wasn’t curriculum for those who only wanted to get to know the basics of it.

His initial idea was the building of a robot that could be programmed by smartphones. The first conception was a tank but it was more so a game than an instructive device. The development of the teaching robot started in February 2013 only as a hobby project for university students, not a business.

They started out as most start-up companies do but they realised that this wasn’t their only chance. The first breakthrough came when they got into an incubator. They took part on a Finnish course where they learned to work as a company. When they came back to Hungary they got their first investment and each of them had to decide if they could work full time.

They ran out of money in 11 months but they managed to create their first product so they could start a crowdfunding campaign. “We worked half a year on a good video, a nice campaign page so that journalists would write about us. We spent a lot of money and time on it. Pressing the START button was a very exciting moment. We kept our fingers crossed that people would be interested in our work.” said Ádám. The campaign finished in May 2015 and they managed to collect 96 thousand dollars.

They started the production and later built their own production line in Esztergom where they are soon going to start the next round. The production and selling numbers are not public but Ádám said that “the robot was welcomed positively.” He is the youngest in his own company. They have 8 members for 15 field of work but they hope to develop and expand further with time.

Photos: www.facebook.com/codietherobot

Copy editor: bm

Source: http://www.szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu/