The world of competition robotics is exploding as a tool to get kids engaged in STEM education. The vast majority of these kids are using poorly designed proprietary software only available on Windows. This is a terrible situation and we have the chance to change it.

The idea that kids' first exposure to the love of coding will be on a poorly designed platform where they get no input, bugs never get fixed, they can't customize anything, and none of it is documented seems unjust. The existing software doesn't even include a real C/C++ compiler. We of the open software community have every opportunity to change all that. Most of the infrastructure we need to make this happen is already in place.

Both VEX platforms, the Cortex for EDR and the VEX IQ brain, are AVR based. GCC now has built-in targeting of AVRs. The Purdue Robotic Operating System (PROSe) has most of the ground already covered. First we just need to extend it from the EDR Cortex to the VEX IQ.