WITH the release of the film Robots, it seems that inventiveness and awareness of technology are creeping more and more into popular culture.

According to the Centre for Astronomy and Science Education, at the University of Glamorgan, this marks a trend towards the creative and inventive use of technology, specifically robots, as a means to learn and to apply useful transferable skills.

Building robots could even improve people’s understanding of maths and science, by engaging them in real world problem solving.

The centre has been leading the use of educational applications of robotics, both within its own BSc in Science and Science Fiction at under-graduate level, and in many community and outreach activities with local schools and community groups.

Dr. Mike Reddy and SETPOINT manager Bruce Etherington have jointly developed and delivered robotic school activities for school children throughout Wales and have also been recognised by the British Council with a contract to run workshops in Europe, the UK and even as far as Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

“We don’t start a session by saying ‘We are going to learn about robots today’.

“We set a scenario like ‘The astronauts need saving’ or ‘Calculate whether there is enough water on Mars to sustain life’.

“We then introduce the robots as a way to solve the problem remotely, where it is impossible to do it other ways, or where it is too unsafe,” explained Dr Reddy.

“In a recent competition, sponsored by 20th Century Fox, distributors of Robots, we had schools and independent teams competing in RoboCup Rescue, RoboCup Dance and RoboCup Soccer. The Welsh final was funded by SETPOINT Wales.

“The rescue competition is my favourite because it has real world applications.

“You can imagine some of the participants going on to design robots that could look for survivors in an earthquake shattered building,” explained Dr Reddy.

Now under the guidance of Prof Mark Brake, the Centre for Astronomy and Science Education are about to take robots out on the road to local valley communities.

Their Space Exploration module will feature robot-building as a key to understanding fascinating discoveries in the local solar neighbourhood such as the recent visits to Mars and Titan.

For more details please call the University’s Centre for Astronomy and Science Education on 01443 483229.

Jenny Rees, Western Mail
Mar 24 2005