A UC3M startup brings robotics to secondary school students
UC3M/DICYT Using robotics to prepare today’s student for a technological future tomorrow. This is being done by CREA Robótica Educativa, a startup supported by the Business Incubator at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) Science Park, which offers extracurricular classes for secondary students as well as training courses for secondary teachers in the area of new technologies.
“In less than a year we have been come into more than a dozen educational centers, where we have incorporated our innovative teaching methodology,” explained the company’s executive director, Félix Rodríguez, who together with a Verónica González and Raúl Pérula, created this startup innovation company. “We are now carrying out free demonstrations in the principal schools and institutes in Madrid in order to bring these technologies closer to families,” the latter pointed out.
The aim is to bring new technologies into the classroom. For this purpose, they develop extracurricular courses on robotics education and 3D printing for students and teacher training workshops for the new subject “Technology, Programming and Robotics”. In fact, for this subject they have designed a robotics education kit “whose main advantage is its modularity,” highlighted Ms. González. It is based on free hardware and printed with a 3Dprinter, which allows modification and personalization,” they noted.
These three young entrepreneurs, who are currently pursuing their doctoral degrees in the UC3M Robotics Lab, are trying to break down the learning barriers between such disciplines as electronics, IT, mechanics, programming and telecommunications. “In order to make any kind of robot you need to build structures, do programming, include electronic components and have everything working in unison, for which it is possible to show different aspects of each of these subjects in a relatively simple way,” they explained.
In addition, they are developing other robotics education kits adapted to all training levels. These are based on an innovative methodology which favors acquisition of new knowledge related to what are called the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) disciplines. “The use of accessible technologies and 3D printing should be an absolute necessity in all training development technology,” they concluded.