Lecture at the Children's University

Apr 7, 2022

Last weekend I was invited as a speaker at the children’s university organized by the Familienakademie of the Kathinka-Platzhoff-Stiftung. The topic was “Wie funktionieren eigentlich Roboter?” [How do robots actually work?] and children between 8 and 12 came to participate. I was quite nervous whether the children would like what I had prepared - but it went really well!

First, I held a 40-minute lecture about robots, thematizing aspects of the robots’ hardware, their software and the ways robots are already used nowadays. One of my main points was that robots are not magical or living beings, but objects that are built out of specific technical components and need to be programmed by people in order to function. Also, I thematized that the way robots are portrayed in fiction is not equivalent with how they are being used nowadays, or how we will live with them in the future. Rather, it is important to understand the basics of robotics for a productive debate on how we want to shape our future with these objects.

After the lecture, the children were split in three groups and completed three different activities for 30 minutes each. As a first activity, I showed them the functioning of a soccer robot that I borrowed from the team I conduct research with. The children had many questions and particularly liked its motion to stand up automatically after falling down. If you are interested in soccer robots, check out the website of the RoboCup, or the youtube channel of the Standard Platform League to see Nao robots play!

The second activity was to design a robot and build a “prototype” out of cardboard. The children first had to decide what their robot should be able to do, and then what components it would need to move, and to perceive and to interact with its environment in order to complete their task. The children got super creative and built very fancy and potentially very useful robots!

And the third activity was to gain first programming experience with the game “Code with Anna and Elsa”. Programming is quite challenging, particularly if you do it for the first time – which is all the more a reason to start when you are young!

I want to thank the Familienakademie for organizing this great event and for the opportunity to present there! And of course I want to thank the kids for coming and participating so enthusiastically!