Recently, Tampa Prep freshman Davis S. '26 was selected to be a beta tester for a coding system called PROS (Purdue Real-time Operating System), created around 2012 by a Purdue University VEXU team called SIGBots. SIGBots were looking for a coding system that would be closer to the C++ language used by nearly all of the 26,000 world-wide high school and middle school teams that compete in the VEX Robotics Competition annually.
PROS is now at version 3.8.0 release and continues to be maintained primarily by Purdue ACM (Association of Computing Machines) SIGBots, along with Tampa Prep's own Davis, who was asked to join the testing team last year. Providing a third-party option to a major development environment is no easy task, however PROS has persisted and thrived. It is now being used by most university teams and is gaining traction in high school teams, as well, including Tampa Prep's 727 Gold team at the VEX Worlds Championship last week.
“Purdue University is arguably the most powerful player in VEX robotics, so it was an honor to be chosen to help them write and test software before it’s released to thousands of teams worldwide," said Davis. "So far, I’ve been able to collaborate with the PROS team by influencing their design decisions and fixing bugs in their code. The entire team is super nice and it’s been amazing to have the opportunity to work with them.”
Davis had the opportunity to meet Senior student Will Xu, Head of Development for PROS, in person for the first time at the VEX Worlds Championship last week in Dallas TX. Xu stopped by the Terrapin Gold booth to personally thank Davis for his many contributions in moving forward the development of PROS!
