Summary of our ERW2023 Conference «AI and STEAM: Redefining Education».
Last Friday, November 17th, HispaRob celebrated its annual European Robotics Week Conference «AI and STEAM: Redefining Education». This year, the venue for the central event was the Faculty of Education of the University of Castilla La-Mancha, in Toledo and also in collaboration with the Regional Centre for Teacher Training of that community.
As always, the event was attended by professionals, administrations and the teaching community, where relevant aspects of education in robotics, Artificial Intelligence and STEAM were discussed.
One of the strong points was once again receiving institutional support, this year from the President of Castilla La-Mancha, Mr Emiliano García Page, who accepted the honorary presidency of our Conference and, in addition, the Delegate of the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla La-Mancha in the province of Toledo attended on his behalf, Álvaro Gutiérrez Prieto, who inaugurated the event in the institutional welcome together with the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Education, Raquel Fernández, the head of the Mirada Crítica Research Group of the UCLM, Natalia Solano, and the president of HispaRob, Jorgina Díaz.
Talks, conferences and presentation of good practices.
After the institutional welcome, the Inaugural Conference was opened at 9:30 a.m. by Karina Gibert, Professor at the UPC, Director of the Intelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence research centre and Dean of the Official College of Computer Engineering of Cataluña..
The day continued with the Round Table «STEAM and Artificial Intelligence» at 11:15 am, which was composed of Miriam Tocino (CEO and Founder of Binary World Productions), José Antonio Escribano (Principal AI Programmer at Smilegate Barcelona), César Poyatos (Professor of Educational Technology in the Department of Pedagogy at the Autonomous University of Madrid) and María Romera (Director of the Spanish Association of Women in Energy AEMENER).
At 1:00 p.m, the Round Table «STEAM and Artificial Intelligence» was held, formed by Pablo Viñas (from the company CARTIF and Vice President of HispaRob), Tomás Domingo Moratalla (Professor of Ethics at the UNED), Ana Isabel Arroyo Hernández (Project Director TECSOS Foundation) and Natalia Solano (Head of the Research Group Mirada Crítica of the UCLM).
The afternoon session continued at 3:00 p.m, with the Round Table «ART and Artificial Intelligence». The debate was led by the reporter, presenter, actress and model Mary Ruiz (Mary Queen), who moderated this meeting where Javier Pascual Soriano (CEO and Founder of Singular Things), Cristina de Propios (PhD in Artificial Intelligence Art & ComputationalCreativity – UEM and VIU) and Gabriel Castaño (Director of the CIBRA Film Festival) were also present contributing their vision.
As the day before at the SIMO Education fair, we held the «RobotDreams Meeting» at 3:45 p.m, where the author of the book «Robots de Cine» Jordi Ojeda formed a discussion with the coordinator of the Cinema and Education project, Mercedes Ruiz.
The round of talks in the Sala Magna of the Faculty of Education closed at 4:30 p.m with a Presentation of Good Practices by leading teachers in STEAM and robotics composed by Francisco Perezagua (Educational Innovation Service of Castilla-La Mancha), Yolanda Sevilla Vera (Educational Inclusion and Coexistence Service of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports of Castilla-La Mancha), Pedro Román (Professor of the Department of Didactics and Educational Organisation of the University of Seville) and Raúl Fernández-Barbado Salas (Teacher of the speciality of machining and maintenance of machines of the IES Condestable in Illescas).
Practical workshops given by the Educational Robotics Group of HispaRob
During the conference, some entities of the Educational Robotics Group of HispaRob, were conducting free practical workshops for teachers and students of the Faculty who attended the event.
During the morning, simultaneous micro-workshops were held in the gym under the name «Gymkana Pecha Kucha Robotics», where assistants could go through the different areas of each entity testing the materials that each of the companies had arranged in their area.
In addition, from 5:30 p.m to 7:30 p.m, simultaneous workshops were held in three different classrooms and divided by three educational levels: pre-school, primary and secondary school/FP.
- Workshops by Camp Tecnológico, JOVI and RO-BOTICA
- Workshops by ALLNET, Universidad de Alcalá y Universal RobotsUniversal Robots
Awarding of the Educational Robotics Quality Seal and closing of the Conference
To close this conference, a small ceremony was held where the Quality Seal was awarded to the new companies that have acquired it this year: Camp Tecnológico, TbKids and ALLNET.
This conference was the central event of HispaRob’s activities in the European Robotics Week, which began the previous days at the SIMO Education fair (IFEMA-Madrid) from 14 to 16 November, where the Educational Robotics Group participated with a stand at the event and organised practical workshops and conference programmes in Hall 6.
Here are some photos of our participation in SIMO Educación:
The Secretary of State for Education, José Manuel Bar Cendón, greets Carlos Pérez (Universal Robots) and Ricardo Muñoz (Prodel and Group Coordinator) at the HispaRob stand:
Workshops given by different entities of the group: Rockbotic, JOVI, Prodel, Universidad de Alcalá, Camp Tecnológico, Arganbot, Edukaland, TbKids, Ocio Global Import, RO-BOTICA, Universal Robots, Microlog and ALLNET.
Conferences, talks and colloquiums organised by HispaRob in Hall 4 of SIMO Education:
From HispaRob and our Educational Robotics Group, we would like to thank once again all the people who participated in one way or another in our activities for the European Robotics Week, both in SIMO Education and in the central day at the Faculty of Education in Toledo: speakers, workshop participants, volunteers and the general public.
We would also like to thank SIMO Educación and IFEMA Madrid for the space they gave us, as well as the staff who worked at the fair to ensure that everything went smoothly.
We would also like to thank the University of Castilla La-Mancha and the Regional Centre for Teacher Training of Castilla La-Mancha. To the President of Castilla La-Mancha, Mr. Emiliano García Page, and the Delegate of the Junta de Comunidades for the province of Toledo, Mr. Álvaro Gutiérrez, for supporting and recognising the work of HispaRob.
And, of course, to the company Newline, for sponsoring our ERW2023 conference.
We look forward to seeing you at the next ERW!