As part of ICRA’s commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, one of its key goals is to introduce new audiences to, and engage them in, the world of robotics and automation. It is, of course, a field that has the potential to provide solutions to so many societal and environmental problems that we face in areas such as healthcare, transportation, agriculture and manufacturing.
Young people – school aged children in particular - are the most important new audience, given that they will be the ones to carry forward the legacy of this event.
Harris Federation is a multi-academy trust of 52 primary and secondary academies in and around London. It oversees 40,000 children, 1 in 3 of whom are disadvantaged, 1 in 3 of whom have English as an additional language, and 1 in 7 of whom have additional learning needs.
Via the Harris Federation umbrella, ICRA has teamed up with 3 schools – each a STEM focussed Academy – offering their Year 7’s 8’s and 9’s taster sessions in robotics, a significant amount of equipment (sponsored by OK:do Technology Limited and ExCeL London) and the opportunity for some of their students to attend the event at ExCeL.
On Wednesday 31st May, these students will be spending an entire day at ICRA, taking on a robotics challenge to demonstrate their newly acquired skills, enjoying guided tours of the exhibition hall highlights, watching some of the competitions between leading industry organisations, and taking part in the ‘Give A Hand’ workshop – in which they’ll be assembling prosthetic hands which will ultimately be sent to recipients, predominantly in developing countries, who ordinarily may not have access to these life changing devices.
Beyond hands-on, direct access to some cutting-edge machinery, this experience will also expose students to an inspiring array of role models from the world of robotics science and innovation.
Come and watch our students programme their Sphero BOLTs to get round a custom created assault course. You’ll find us on Wednesday 31st May in Hall N11, just by the main stairs.
