Program

A word of welcome, and a look at the results of the questions you answered at sign-up.

Why do we need multidisciplinarity? This talk will start by going back to the emergence of the need for multidisciplinary education and look into the goals of current relevant educational initiatives in higher education. The nature and challenges of multidisciplinary learning will be examined and important considerations from educational psychology will be highlighted to better support student learning, development, and achievement toward this goal in robotics education.

The new MSc Robotics programme at the University of Twente is based on the following definition of a robot:

“A mechanism that moves in an environment, with a least some autonomy or some interaction”.

The MSc Robotics covers all mentioned aspects in three specialization tracks: Mechatronics, Algorithms, and Human-Robot Interaction. Although the students specialize in one of these directions, they will also receive a common, broad, basis in robotics:

1. Compulsory courses (e.g. Systems Engineering) that are the same for all students

2. ELSE (Ethical, Legal, Societal, Economical) aspects are interwoven in several courses

3. Artificial Intelligence is a key component in each track; there are track specific AI courses

4. Students from all three tracks will be working together on challenges where they bring in their specific knowledge, but also learn to implement elements from other disciplines

Through these elements, a robotics program is created that is broader than the robotics specializations that already exist in other master programs, like electrical and mechanical engineering. Robotics is per definition a broad field in which many disciplines work together and learn from each other, which is now reflected in this MSc Robotics program.

Prof. Bruyninckx kindly requested to refer to his website:

https://u0011821.pages.gitlab.kuleuven.be/

The audience will be split into groups and divided over Zoom breakout rooms, representing either the broad or the deep point of view on robotics education. Together we will try to find arguments and motivation for one of both approaches, to convince and possibly provoke the opposing group.

The audience will bring together the viewpoints and motivations from the preceding breakout session. Will we consolidate somewhere in the middle, or is there a clear need for specific broad or deep knowledge?

Robots excite people, including kids. Robotics in education (educational robotics) started to gather attention from the education community after LEGO Mindstorms RCX was produced in the late 1990s. It has gained more popularity and demands since the worldwide focus on STEM and computer science education started to prevail. It is widely accepted and understood that educational robotics brings excitement and motivation to learn, and fosters curiosity and creativity in students. Educational robotics is an effective tool for facilitating students’ learning. Educational robotics becomes an effective tool when students engage in making or creating using robotics. Making with robotics creates a fun and engaging hands-on learning environment for students. Making with robotics engages students in manipulating, assembling, disassembling, and reassembling materials while going through the design learning process. This session touches upon various aspects of learning that robots promote and what kids can do when they are engaged in learning with robots.

Room for questions and open discussion involving the audience related to the preceding talk.

With the current Corona situation teaching has become more challenging. In this presentation we introduce approaches to increase the quality of teaching using e-learning tools and to integrate a larger spectrum of expertise. We encourage the students to reflect and share their experiences with each other and with the teachers as short texts (called blinks) in an open digital space. Here, students can discuss their key insights and open questions.

In virtual classes students can join ongoing research by watching, commenting and suggesting on running experiments (e.g. with legged robots). Research assistants who are the senior students can describe the experimental robotic setups and study designs in online sessions and the course students can interact by their suggestions to update parameters (e.g., for control) and see the outcomes immediately.

Students in advanced courses are presenting their project work to the students in the introductory lecture in the format of blinks. Then, the students from the lecture write short reflections on their projects. Furthermore, professional researchers provide input talks which significantly contribute to the quality of teaching and encourage the student’s involvement. Potentially, this could lead to follow-up collaborations (e.g., student projects or theses).

Room for open discussion and questions involving the audience related to the preceding talk.