In January 2022, we were particularly excited to hear a discussion on BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme between UK Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi and Chief Digital Officer at Microsoft Jackie Wright. Here is what they said and why it piqued our interest! Nadhim Zahawi, Education Secretary. Photo credit: Wikipedia “I want to see more young people being exposed to the power of computing, the doors are opened, its in every sector of the economy. It benefits you in almost anything you want to do in life.” — Nadhim Zahawi, UK Education Secretary Jackie: "Technology is fundamental in every ..read more

Last month, the University of Waterloo (Samira Rasouli, Garima Gupta, Elizabeth Nilsen & Kerstin Dautenhahn) published a paper on the effectiveness of social robots for clinicians and patients in Robot-Assisted Interventions for Social Anxiety. They used MiRo and a range of social robots in their study. Their research supports the use of social robots in robot-assisted interventions for social anxiety and you can read the full research paper here. We have summarised their article below. “Interactions with social robots could help alleviate anxiety and tension in both ch ..read more

Thu, 4 November 2021 - Mon, 18 April 2022 Looking for a fun exhibition for the New Year? Come and visit MiRo at the prestigious Thackray Museum of Medicine! The playful ‘Can Robots care?’ exhibition offers visitors the chance to explore a range of robots designed to care for humans. It tells the story of how care robots have been imagined, designed, and built through history and into the present. View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize You will get a chance to see MiRo among other robots and reflect on the potential uses, benefits, and risks of care robots. It invites visi ..read more

Universities are responding to these challenges using technology. Online learning platforms now offer rubrics, modules, calendars, schedules, quizzes, syllabi, analytics even speed-grading. They create centralized learning hubs integrating with Teams, Zoom, Adobe and more which supports greater communication, formative and summative assessments, and help with efficiency. However, they partially address the changes and challenges in play, educators still need content and tools to stimulate creativity. Since technology platforms reduce personal contact, they need ways to gauge engagement and lea ..read more

Universities face an interesting challenge. The popular demand for university education is having two observable effects.  First, the number of students in the lecture room is growing. Every teacher is aware of the challenge that an ever-increasing first-year class poses in a full lecture theatre. How does the teacher pace a session with the wide range of abilities in the room? How can they formatively assess each student’s progress? How can material be adapted to suit an individual’s learning pace? And how can the brightest minds be stimulated whilst not leaving the others behind and put ..read more

Learning to code is more important for the future than you think Image: Informationisbeautiful.net In the future, there will be a demand for more and more Artificial Intelligence [AI] coding to run our cities, the NHS (the UK’s National Health Service) and the devices we use in our home for housework, security, homeworking and entertainment. The amount of coding required is exponentially increasing as the demands of the systems required to support modern life increase. Here are a few examples of the size of the software used in some showcase technologies of their time and what we commonly nee ..read more

We recently posted an interview with Professor Lynne Baillie from the School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, who, along with Computer Science graduate Neve Curnyn, investigated whether MiRo could assist with social distancing within the home. We’re delighted to share a video of Lynne discussing the social distancing project in more detail. Interviewed by Consequential Robotics Professor David Lane CBE, join them as they discuss the results, challenges and benefits of the project. Pressed for time? Head straight to the chapters below! 2:30 - How did this project ..read more

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