Scuola di Robotica

Scuola di Robotica (School of Robotics) is an Italian no profit Society appointed as Educational and Training Center by the Italian Ministry of Education, Research and University. A Committee consisting of robotics scientists and of scholars in Humanities has instituted School of Robotics (2000). The aim of the School of Robotics is to promote the knowledge of the science of Robotics among teachers, students, and young people, in the range of undergraduates. It provides for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning the results of the R&D in the field of Robotics, ICT, and about complementary developments of other disciplines (Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychology, Applied Ethics, Education). Scuola di Robotica has been key in promoting Roboethics (Ethical, Legal, and Societal Aspects in Robotics - ELSA) and it was the ELSA Referee for the European Action CARE (Coordination Action for Robotics in Europe). It is the Regional Partner of the FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL); it is the National Coordinator of EC euRobotics Week. It the National Organizer of the NAO Challenge, and European Reference for the Humanoids Festival. The main aims of Robot at School are: • Understanding the impact of ICT, of Robotics and of new technologies in general with regard to the processes and learning methodologies; • Technical, scientific and methodological update for the teachers working in secondary technical and vocational schools; • Development and diffusion of a highly innovative didactic methodology through a multidisciplinary Virtual Laboratory on the Internet.; • Promoting cooperation between the different disciplines with regard to the realization of an innovative experiment; • Promoting knowledge and responsible use of ICT and the New Media. School of Robotics has acquired a deep experience of Research Projects based on its working philosophy of the concept of the Virtual Lab. This allows leading multidisciplinary working groups to develop the H/W and S/W programs to be exploited within the project. School of Robotics was the main association committed to promoting the E-Robot and E-Robot 2 missions of the National Research Council (CNR)-Robotlab, organizing many “Science live” experiments. School of Robotics organized a national contest, E-Robot School Contest, among Technical and Vocational Italian Schools with the aim to design and build an experiment to be carried out and performed in Antarctica by the CNR underwater robot Romeo. The winning school could pilot via the Internet its experiment, installed on the robot Romeo in Antarctica. In the E-Robot2 Experiment, one hundred students in several Italian cities could be connected via the Internet with scientists and researchers in the Arctic, in the Svalbard Islands, where the E-Robot2 Expedition was carrying out important experiments. The students could pilot the robot Romeo, diving the seabed of the Kongsfjorden, where robot Romeo became the working tool for several European research centres. Furthermore, School of Robotics co-ordinates a network of almost 100 schools from primary to secondary where robotics is employed as an educational platform to learn many subjects and to improve skills. Over the past 20 years, School of Robotics has been committed to integrating Robotics into the K-12 Education not as an aim but as a tool for: 1) Providing continuous refresher courses for teachers; 2) Making it easier for new high school graduates to find a job; 3) sustain Gender Education Methodology in STEM ; 4) Selecting and coaching of graduates interested in university careers; 5) helping societies and workers keep abreast of new technologies; 6); support the Special Need Education. Ongoing Research and Projects: Vertical Integration of Educational Robotics in K-12 Education (by way of standard robotics kits; artefacts; an open environment in which students are able to design their own program for a robot); Girls Discover Robots: promoting Girs in STEM; Educational Robotics for kid with Special Needs (autism, cognitive impairments, in collaboration with several Autism Research Centers in Italy); Development of Educational App’s Resposible use of Internete and of the New Media. Devices and Robotics kits used and developed: Lego kits (WeDo, EV3, ect) Use of Arduino as programming breadboard for High Schools Training Drones Underwater robots 3D Printing Humanoids robots The main expertise that School of Robotics pivots around the experience of 14 years of Educational Robotics Projects implemented in cooperation with ICT companies. School of Robotics has managed activities devoted to youth career and vocational guidance; to girls in STEM’s; to young people with Special Needs. These skills are tools - not final aims - for young people to cope with current and future professions and careers, whatever their jobs would be, either in ICT or in any other field. Today, ICT skills are unavoidable and instrumental.