About Me

Hello everyone and welcome! My name is Kyle Markland, commonly known online as Builderdude35, and my website is home to hundreds of awesome robotics tutorials!

My video tutorials use the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 platform to teach various concepts of programming and engineering, such as worm gears, line following, linear actuators, etc. I publish a new tutorial every Thursday. Some of my tutorials may even help you with competitions such as FIRST LEGO League (FLL) or the World Robotics Olympiad (WRO).

I also make videos showcasing some cool robots that I have made. I have built everything from RC cars to four-legged pneumatic walking robots to interactive bipeds and much more. I even have some Raspberry Pi based robots. Some of my robots, such as the Timmyton and Grunt, have become famous worldwide and have been featured at events such as the World Maker Faire in NYC.

You can follow me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/builderdude35/

Here are some milestones and accomplishments I’d like to share with you:

  • April 2013: My FLL team won our regional championship and was invited to compete in the FLL World Festival in St. Louis, Missouri.
  • August 2013: The Timmyton 4.0 is featured on the NXT Step: http://www.thenxtstep.com/2013/08/the-kid-with-timmyton-35.html
  • September 2013: I build the Timmyton 5.0. It is one of four winners of the MINDSTORMS Community’s Out-of-the-Box building challenge.
  • December 2013: The Timmyton 5.0 is featured on the NXT Step: http://www.thenxtstep.com/2013/12/check-it-out-timmyton-50-built-with-one.html
  • July 2014: MicroBass is runner-up in the MINDSTORMS Community’s “MicroBot” building challenge.
  • August 2014: NXT Grunt is one of four winners on the MINDSTORMS Community’s “Action Figure” building challenge.
  • September 2014: I am invited by LEGO MINDSTORMS to present my robot, the Timmyton 5.5, at the the 2014 Maker Faire in New York City. (It is also Runner-up in the MINDSTORMS Community’s “Year of the Maker” building challenge.) http://www.thenxtstep.com/2014/10/super-cool-shark-robot-make-with-one.html
  • NXT Grunt, Timmyton 5.5 and Sirius have all been featured on the front page of the MINDSTORMS Community website.
  • July 2015: Winner of the LEGO Prototyping contest (“Are You a LEGO Maker”).
  • August 2015: My YouTube channel reaches 1,000 subscribers!!!
  • September 2015: I’m yet again invited to represent LEGO MINDSTORMS at World Maker Faire NYC 2015. Here, I present EV3 Grunt.
  • October 2015: My YouTube channel reaches 2,000 subscribers!!!
  • December 2015: The Krimzon Guard Security Tank is featured on the Robotmatter website: http://robomatter.com/cool-project-ev3-tank/
  • January 2016: I am named a “Dexpert” by Dexter Industries.
  • April 2016:  My YouTube channel reaches 4,000 subscribers!!!
  • As of April 30, 2016, the LDD for the Plethora II Chassis has been downloaded 5,995 times! The LDD for Sirius has been downloaded 2,739 times, and the Timmyton’s LDD has been downloaded 548 times.
  • June 2016: I give a presentation at the LEGO Learning Symposium at Tufts University (June 6-7). about my MINDSTORMS tutorials in front of educators from across the world: https://youtu.be/zXnfgYWvzeI
  • August 2016: My Polylander robot, now equipped with image recognition technology, is featured on the Mindsensors website. My tutorial on image recognition is also featured there, too! (http://www.mindsensors.com/blog/pistorms/image-recognition-robot-with-pistorms-and-pi-camera)
  • Grunt, which was on display at World Maker Fair NYC in 2015, is featured on the official LEGO YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/XgeM7hQW6Ro
  • My YouTube channel reaches 5,000 subscribers on the last day of August!
  • December 2016: My YouTube channel reaches 7,000 subscribers!
  • March 2017: My channel reaches 8,000 subscribers and has over 1.1 million total views!
  • April 2017: “How to Build an FLL Robot – 8 Simple Tips” becomes my first video to reach over 100,000 views. The video was originally published on March 5, 2015, and is one of my earliest tutorial videos.
  • As of April 30, 2017, the LDD for the Plethora II Chassis has been downloaded 7,791 times! The LDD for the original Sirius has been downloaded 4,958 times and Sirius 1.2 has been downloaded 1,007 times. The Timmyton (5.7) has been downloaded 1,049 times. Finally, K3MOSAB3, which was first put up for download one year ago today, has 2,414 downloads.
  • June 2017: My channel reaches 9,000 subscribers!
  • July 2017: I am featured in an Expert Roundup published on Curcuito.io along with 29 other Makers. We were asked, “How do Makers contribute to the industry?” and each of us gave our own insightful responses. Read them all here!
  • August 2017: LEGO officially names me a MINDSTORMS Community Partner (MCP) for my expertise and my work in robotics education.
  • September 2017: LEGO asks me to design the MINDSTORMS Gallery challenge for the month of September. I create the Character Bot Building Challenge, which you can find on the LEGO MINDSTORMS website here!
  • On September 6, 2017, my YouTube channel reaches 10,000 subscribers! This is a huge milestone and I’m humbled to be able to shatter it! At this time, my channel also has almost 1.5 million total views! A HUGE thanks to everyone who made this possible!
  • October 2017: On October 18, my YouTube channel reaches 11,000 subscribers and has more than 1.6 million total views.
  • December 2017:  12,000 subscribers!
  • February 2018: 13,000 subscribers! Also, I helped represent LEGO MINDSTORMS at LEGO Live NYC.
  • March 2018: I was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). My YouTube channel was a major factor in getting me accepted.
  • April 2018: On April 4, my book Building Smart LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Robots was published! I am immensely proud of this momentous accomplishment and pleased with the result!
  • May 2018: 14k subscribers!
  • July 2018: 15k subscribers!
  • September 2018: 16k subscribers!
  • October 2018: My interview with The Everyday Innovator is published. Check it out here.
  • November 2018: 17k subscribers!
  • December 2018: The channel reaches 18,000 subscribers on the last day of the year!
  • March 2019: 19k subscribers!
  • June 2019: The channel reaches 20,000 subscribers on June 9, 2019. A monumental occasion!
  • April 2020: The channel reaches 24k subscribers.
  • September 2020: 25k subscribers!

And of course, the obligatory fancy picture:

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.