education

Today Matthijs Smakman will defend his doctoral thesis titled “Robots in Education: The Morally Responsible Deployment of Robot Assistants”. Conducted under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Elly Konijn, his empirically grounded research represents a significant milestone in achieving a morally responsible integration of social robots as educational assistants in primary schools. Previous studies have already indicated that the utilization of social robots yields better outcomes compared to traditional educational technologies.

Who do children prefer to learn from? Previous research has shown that even infants can identify the best informant. But would preschoolers prefer learning from a competent robot over an incompetent human? According to a new paper by Concordia researchers published in the Journal of Cognition and Development, the answer largely depends on age.

A team of experts at The University of Manchester has been awarded major funding to help design smarter robots that will have more meaningfully dialogue with humans after developing improved insight into our inner feelings through language. The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Professor Angelo Cangelosi, co-director of the Manchester Centre for Robotics and AI, a total of €2.5million as part of the eTALK project.

At the beginning of the European Robotic Forum 2023 the mayor of Odense, Peter Rahbæk Juel, highlighted the impact the robotics industry has had on his community. At a reception in Odense City Hall he said that the robotics cluster gives employment to 4,600 people, and already comprises an ecosystem of 130 companies.

A global ABB survey has revealed a growing trend in US and European businesses towards re-shoring or nearshoring operations to build resilience in the face of global challenges – but at the same time, a significant education gap in the skills necessary for these strategies to succeed. 

Automation is technology, but in succesfully implementing it the human factor should be considered as well. This is one of the topics UiPath Immersion Labs is focussed on. At TOGETHER Amsterdam the Rocking Robots team disucussed the involvement of people and the opportunities digital upskilling provides them with Claudia Pedersen, Immersion Labs Operations Director at UiPath.

To help expand the diversity of the talent that will shape the future of robotics, Amazon has invested in a number of academic engagements with colleges and universities, including a new collaboration with Hampton University.

A push to automate is changing the way humans and machines work together. The number of industrial robots installed in factories reached about 3 million units worldwide in 2020 – more than doubling in ten years. The IFR has researched how robotics training shapes current and future workforce education, enhancing skills development for employees.

Today the first automation school launches in Ireland to educate the next generation of the country’s workforce on automation. Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board has partnered with the ABP School of Automation and UiPath on the delivery of this training through the funding of a pilot traineeship.

The increase in online education has allowed a new type of teacher to emerge -an artificial one. But just how accepting students are of an artificial instructor remains to be seen.