Aim

AiRobo aims to increase the quality and the attractivity of related departments at the partner universities, by a significant raise of the level of competence and skills of the relevant academic staff in the field of Artificial Intelligence based Robotics; and to address the European priority in national context, namely Inclusion in Higher Education: social inclusion, improving the outreach to people with fewer opportunities, including:

Activities

AiRobo will implement the following activities while also creating a perfect opportunity for a large dissemination of the project results through its website (the one you are browsing right now).

AiRobo Innovation

The addressed subject of the project is innovative because robotics and Artificial Intelligence are rapidly growing fields with an expected strong development in the future in different areas. AI based robotics has the potential to improve education by offering students tailored and engaging learning experiences. Robots can serve as learning assistants, providing feedback, answering questions, and leading students through classes. They may also adapt their instruction to each student’s learning style, speed, and preferences, making the learning process more successful and efficient.

Innovations of the AiRobo project include:

• Using AI in robotics Innovation.
• Using formal methods for robot design and verification.
• The AiRobo book will consist in innovative material that supports teaching and learning several subjects: AI, robotics, automated reasoning, formal verification, graph theory, automated theorem proving, verification of hybrid systems, etc.
• The robotic applications, and video tutorials intended to be developed will lead to innovations in several practical domains: education, industry, health, agriculture, etc. These are addressed also to people with disabilities and migrant background, and will serve as practical applications also for other courses that are more theoretical.
• Scientific publications Innovation.

Consortium:

West University of Timișoara,  Romania – Coordinator
University of Macedonia, Greece – Partner
RWTH Aachen University, Germany – Partner
Eszterhazy Karoly Catholic University, Hungary – Partner
Universite de Lorraine,  France – Partner

For more information about the project visit website: https://airobo.info.uvt.ro/
Social Media AiRobo:
LinkedIn: AiRobo: Artificial Intelligence based
Facebook: AiRobo | Timisoara

The training covered a range of topics from basic to advanced robotics . Week 1 included an introduction to social robotics, programming fundamentals, speech and interaction, autonomous robotics, vision and object recognition, and project planning. Week 2 focused on advanced topics such as human-robot interaction (HRI), advanced social robot interaction, customization and advanced programming, project development and review, and presentation.

We would also like to express our gratitude to the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki and Mr. Antonis Dimitriou (Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, AUTH) for their warm hospitality, insightful tour, and presentations!

For more information about the project visit website: https://airobo.info.uvt.ro/

Emphasys Interactive Solutions (Cyprus)

Atlantis (Greece)

Rezeknes Tehnologiju Akademija (Latvia)

Agrupamento de Escolas José Estevão (Portugal)

Autism-Europe (Belgium)

Uniwersytet Warszawski (Poland)

The ASD-IncluDi project aims for accessible and inclusive distance education for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

ASD-IncluDi objective has been the creation and implementation of an innovative and easy to integrate framework that will allow special needs educators, as well as parents and caregivers to adopt distance learning and use it effectively to have the best possible outcomes for children with ASD.

For more information visit https://autism-includi.uom.gr/

The arisen issues become even more critical due to the fact that educational institutions are willing to continue many courses in DL, and even in the after-pandemic era, DL will be one of the major educational services. Hence, the Autism-IncluDi project is addressed to special needs educators, parents and to their children with special needs, aiming to tackle the barriers that Higher Education (HE) students with Autism face while participating in DL. Evidently, this will be achieved by increasing the capacity of HE institutions towards DL, the development of DL digital pedagogy, and the expertise and purposeful use of digital technologies.

This project proposes an educational platform with multi-level components, designed and developed on the base of a well-researched pedagogical framework, which aims to make STEM education more attractive to young people from age 10 to 18 years old. Universities, schools, teachers, students, parents, business and media partners come together to complete a circle in which STEM becomes a part of the daily life of youths through an educational portal that also prepares them for future careers.

The socially motivational platform for emotional and educational engagement, herein referred to as the STIMEY (Science, Technology, Innovation, Mathematics, Education for the Young) platform, will combine:

– social media components and entrepreneurial tools (present),

– robotic artefacts (the future),

– radio (the past)

to educate, engage and increase the youth’s interest in STEM education and careers. The platform, with individual e-portfolios, will be designed to tap into the children’s curiosity and motivations from a young age. The platform will take into account the specific needs of girls and boys, to be attracted and stay with STEM in a social collaborative environment with serious gaming and healthy competition among peers. The platform will give teachers the necessary modern tools to deliver STEM education in an attractive and engaging manner in-class, while also following up on students’ progress even outside of class.

Our research team, headed by Associate Professor, Nikolaos Fachantidis, is responsible for the study, design, and implementation of interactive robots suitable to support the educational and social goals of the program, parallel to student progress, and will be distributed to students and primary and secondary schools across Europe. Within STIMEY, innovative technologies and pedagogical methods developed, empowering students, to approach the positive sciences in a scientific and social dimension, will connect them with non-formal education institutions, but also professional bodies in practice, while also supporting teachers and parents. The ultimate goal of the project is for students, through the certified course, acquisition of knowledge, skills, and abilities, to acquire supplies, self-esteem, and self-realization, but also the social context, to successfully choose studies and career in the field of science.

Partners: HOCHSCHULE EMDEN/LEER, Germany (Co-ordinator), POLOTSK STATE UNIVERSITY, Belarus, JYVASKYLAN YLIOPISTO, Finland, MLS PLIROFORIKI AE, Greece, BABY RADIO SL, Spain, KOMPETENZZENTRUM TECHNIK-DIVERSITY- CHANCENGLEICHHEIT E.V., Germany

Enhancing Digital Skills of Hard-to-Reach Adults for Better Life Chances!

Target group: 

Immigrants, low-skilled or low-qualified adults with lack of motivation or capacity, including the ones who are unemployed, uneducated, or graduated from basic educational levels, or the ones in elementary occupations.

Objectives:

1. The main goal of this project is to provide hard-to-reach adults with flexible learning opportunities through face-to-face interactions and an interactive e-learning platform and a mobile application equipped with gamification strategies to foster them digital skills.

2. The project will also bring together small groups of these adults in events and show them how to transfer their digital skills into real life situations and how to use technology to improve their lives.

3. Provide adults with 21st century skills and encourage them to take action and gain self-confidence, by enabling them to perceive their situations as a serious game in which they should play to win.

4. Encourage them to see that they are “capable of changing their situations” by using their digital skills and gamification strategies in the society more effectively.

5. Build the capacities of adult educators through trainings about gamification strategies in fostering hard-to-reach adults’ digital skills and integrating these strategies into real life situations.

Partners: MINISTRY OF NATIONAL EDUCATION, Turkey, PANEVEZIO RAJONO SVIETIMO CENTRAS, Lithuania, APEC EGITIM DANISMANLIK LTD., Turkey, KERIGMA- INSTITUTO DE INOVACAO E DESENVOLVIMENTO SOCIAL DE BARCELOS, Portugal, UNIVERSITY OF MACEDONIA, Greece, NARA TECHNOLOGY, Turkey.