Robots and Physical Computing

Originally posted as:  http://computingnorthampton.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/waste-as-tool-to-inspire-potential.html in 2012. A recent article in the Northampton  Herald and Post  "  How a university is using waste as tool to inspire students" by Lawrence John discusses the Junkbots project.  " FUNNY looking robots called junkbots could be the key to encouraging more children across the county to become engineers, computer programmers or scientists. One force which is driving this idea forward is the University of Northampton. For the past few years, staff from its science and technology department have been going out to primary and secondary schools to spread the word that science is fun. By working with schools, the university hopes to show pupils a different side to computing and hopefully raise their interest in what they can achieve " Lawrence John For the whole article  click here .this takes you to the Newspaper site...

I  managed to do something I have want to do for a long time, show off social robots; (now I have three goes at it) thanks to the recent purchase of NAO robots by the University of Northampton.  Session 1 In an in-reach STEAM activity day I have had the opportunity to show the robots in action to a group of 8 years olds. As well presenting a short presentation on social robots. Meeting our robots at our #science day for girls pic.twitter.com/0XwllXL40s — Chris Fidler (@Chris_UNPR) March 3, 2016 Meet Smurf and Red at Girls S.T.E.A.M. @UniNorthants @scottturneruon @Changemaker_Hub @nick_petford pic.twitter.com/ZMt07ZrSVh — STEM at UN (@STEMatUN) March 3, 2016 Social robots meet red and smurf from Scott Turner I would be interested to hear how others are using NAOs via comments. Session 2 and 3 I have managed to include a physical example of Social Robots into my teaching. The aim of the session was to teach about social AI, revolving aroun...