ITKAN's Mantik platform reaches over 4,500 users

CommunityGlobal

By Nazim Ayub

ITKAN students watch live teleop robot code on a large screen at the Innovation Hub while a student tests it with a controller — ITKAN students study live teleop code at the Innovation Hub — the kind of hands-on programming Mantik was built to teach.

What began inside the ITKAN Innovation Hub is now reaching far beyond North Texas. Mantik, a free programming curriculum built by ITKAN students, has become one of the network's most visible contributions to the wider FIRST community — used by more than 30 ITKAN students locally and discovered by teams across eight countries since its launch in June 2025. Led by ITKAN programming student Abdullah Khaled, the project reflects a growing tradition at ITKAN: students do not only compete at the highest levels of FRC and FTC — they build resources that help others do the same.

An ITKAN student mentor helps a young student drive the ITKAN Stellar robot on the practice field at the Innovation Hub — Build, mentor, give back: an ITKAN student guides a young driver on the practice field at the Innovation Hub.

The Mantik home page showing Java, FTC, and FRC training paths alongside interactive tools at mantik.netlify.app — The Mantik home page — written training paths and interactive tools in one place at mantik.netlify.app.

Available at mantik.netlify.app, Mantik offers a single home for students learning to program competition robots — from their first lessons in Java through the skills they need to contribute on an FRC or FTC team. Written guides, video tutorials, and interactive practice tools sit side by side so learners can move at their own pace, whether they are sitting in the Hub in Plano or opening the site from halfway around the world. The platform is free, open, and designed to be shared: any team, anywhere, can use it without cost.

A Mantik FRC lesson on on-controller PID, showing a Talon FX code example inside the curriculum's lesson sidebar — Mantik's FRC track covers real competition topics — here, an on-controller PID lesson with vendor hardware code.

Mantik's in-browser PID simulator with live tuning sliders, an elevator mechanism view, and a real-time response graph — The built-in PID simulator lets students tune a virtual mechanism in the browser — no robot required.

The broader FRC community has taken notice. Since June 2025, Mantik has appeared in search results more than 3,600 times on Google, with 50+ teams and students clicking through to explore the curriculum. On Chief Delphi — the forum where experienced FRC programmers gather to share resources — ITKAN's project has drawn over 100 clicks and almost 1,000 views from teams seeking better ways to onboard new programmers. Those numbers tell a simple story: ITKAN is helping shape how the next generation of FIRST programmers learn, not only inside its own walls, but across the global FRC ecosystem.

Mantik's Programming Resources page, a searchable, filterable library of 35 FRC and FTC docs, tutorials, and tools — A searchable resource library gathers docs, tutorials, and tools from across the FIRST community in one place.

A world map with the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Kazakhstan, India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam highlighted — Teams across eight countries have found and used Mantik since its June 2025 launch.

Mantik is one chapter in a larger ITKAN story — of students who build, mentor, and give back. As Summer Training and recruitment for the 2026–2027 season continue at the Innovation Hub, the platform stands as a reminder that ITKAN's reach extends well beyond any single event or award. Teams everywhere are invited to explore mantik.netlify.app, share it with their programmers, and join the growing community of students learning through a resource born at ITKAN.

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