The iRobot Root rt0 ($129) is equipped with many of the same features and sensors as the original Root rt1, but it's $70 less expensive. The iRobot Root rt0 is equipped with 20-plus sensors that allow it to drive, draw, detect touch, light up, play music, and more. Like its predecessor, the Root rt0 is a two-wheeled, mobile robot designed for kids. It operates based on the coding commands kids give to it via the companion iRobot Coding App. The rt0 offers three levels of coding language – simple graphical blocks for young children to full-text coding for more advanced users.

We're honored that we got to see a Wyss Institute technology go from its earliest stages to where we are today, with the opportunity to make a gigantic impact on the world,

Some robots make people feel like climbing the wall, and other robots climb the walls themselves. Root a new code-teaching robot is the latest in a long line of teaching bots designed to inspire students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) studies. However, this bot, still in Kickstarter mode, is different. First of all, it's designed to teach coding skills to everyone from kindergarten to adulthood. Second, it's potentially more fun than most because it's programming can be carried out vertically -- or at least on any wall with metal behind or on it, which may make it the perfect classroom robot since there's a metal-backed whiteboard at the front of most classrooms.

Computing jobs are growing at twice the national rate of other types of employment. By 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says, the US will have 1 million more computer science-related jobs than graduates qualified to fill them. In December, President Obama announced the Computer Science for All Initiative, pledging 4 billion in funding for computer science education in the nation's schools. Yet all kinds of dysfunction keeps the country from closing the deficit in computer science talent, according to a survey by Google and Gallup. Yes, school budgets are a problem, and teachers have a limited time to devote to additional classes.