Robotics is increasingly becoming a fascinating tool to increase interest in STEM for high school students, and the public. In 2022, we were involved in multiple outreach projects, and as well of course part of the student shadowing and hosting programme CERN is involved with.
Initiative for Girls in STEM: Italian High School Students control robots at CERN
As part of the Progetto Girls and Science initiative in Vicenza (Italy), the CEM group at CERN helped facilitate a workshop that aimed to increase the curiosity and participation of girls at high school level in STEM.
After a lecture on robotics at CERN that outlined the type of tasks and challenges we face in our accelerator complex, fourteen girls were able to become a remote operator – moving the CERNbot robot to perform pick and place tasks in our LHC mock-up area. With visual feedback from cameras streamed from Prevessin, France to Vicenza, Italy, and information from our graphical user interface on the robot status, they were trained in the task by our expert operators before testing the system on their own.
The afternoon was extremely productive and enjoyable, with the girls having a ‘great, amazing experience’ where it was ‘very exciting to move a robot hundreds of kilometres away from their keyboard.’
Robotics Challenge at Palexpo as part of the FIRST Global Event
The FIRST Global Challenge is an Olympics-style, international robotics competition that takes place in a different country each year. In 2022, it was held in Geneva, and over 150 countries sent a team to build and program a robot to compete towards a challenge simulating carbon capture.
The three-day event allowed high school and university students from all around the world to develop their understanding of robotics, teamwork and to meet other motivated students in the field. As part of the exhibition space, both the CERN public exhibition team and CEM presented the work we do here. Our volunteers answered hundreds of questions, were able to explain how and why we use robots for inspection, maintenance and repair tasks at CERN and share their own journeys with young people just starting out with their careers.
Swiss Robotics Day
The Swiss Robotics Day, an annual event run by the EPFL-led National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics now in its 7th year, took place on November 4 & 5 2022 at the Beaulieu Convention Center in Lausanne, Switzerland.
This event brings together the main groups involved in robotics in Switzerland: present were 26 research labs, 9 spin off companies, 21 companies and 20 funding and development bodies. Friday was reserved for the industry day, and Saturday the doors opened to allow more than 3000 members of the public of all ages to discover robotics.
The event featured talks and panel discussions on topics such as robot ethics, robots used in industry, space, and art and about how robots and AI can be used to promote sustainable development. CERN’s CEM group had an exhibition booth with robots on display and presented our research and development to the public with a lecture.
