Smart-Robotics for Education
01 Mar 2021
With the huge potential of robotics getting unlocked every day, even educators are leveraging robotics to improve the quality of education in novel ways, providing hands-on way of teaching important concepts like mathematics and science. Teachers can showcase how simple mathematical concepts like addition, subtraction, proportion etc. are applied in the field of robotics.
These bots use the same general characteristics as industrial robots, but are much safer and less expensive to use. As per 'Global Robotics Education Industry Market Research Report', the global education robot market is estimated to reach size of around $25 billion by 2026 with a CAGR of around 23%.
One of the first robots in the educational field was released in the 1980s, called the Heathkit Educational Robot (HERO). Though it was not programmed to perform practical tasks, it was a self-contained mobile robot that was controlled by an on-board computer using a Motorola CPU and 4 KB of RAM. The educational bot featured light, sound, motion detectors and a sonar ranging sensor.
Recently, UBTECH Education and Follett have formed a partnership to create interactive JIMU robotic building block systems which enables students to develop critical STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) skills in a hands-on environment. JIMU robots are designed to complement the incremental steps of STEM success in experimentation and progressive learning by providing countless hours of creative and inspiring fun.
Similarly, NuMinds Enrichment has developed AI-powered NAO robot, which enables students to interact with the humanoid as it teaches coding, literature and simulates training environments. NuMinds programs are also enhanced with cutting-edge virtual reality (VR) goggles that integrate virtual environments and augment learning, to captivate students and enhance their experience.
Back home in India, Agilo Research, an EdTech hardware start-up, has developed STEMpedia Robotics learning platform to foster creativity and innovation among the young students. This platform was part of ‘India Innovation Growth Program’ launched by Lockheed Martin, Tata Trusts and FICCI.
Based on the innovative solutions being launched, AI and robotics can effectively improve the quality of elementary and even higher education. Besides cutting down the overall cost in generating insights in different scientific sectors, the technologies can help teachers tailor the education system to suit students with diverse learning needs.
Credits : Akhil Handa,Manish Kulkarni
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Smart Farming
Dear Reader,
Smart farming can be referred to as the 4.0 green revolution in the field of agriculture combining agriculture methodologies with technology — Sensors & Actuators, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Internet of Things (IoT), Robotics and Drones to achieve desired efficiencies of production which are sustainable.
According to a survey, 80% of farmers in US and 24% farmers in UK have already started using Smart Farming Tool (SFT). These numbers are cognizant of the fact that SFTs are adding value to the farming ecosystem. As far as the scale of operations is considered, Smart farming tools and techniques can be applied to large scale and on the other hand distributed conventional farming can be applied to focused small farming set of organic farms.
Through remote sensing, smart farming system reduces waste, improves productivity and enables optimum resource management. For the benefit of micro farming, multiple crops are grown simultaneously on remote lands which require different care, manure, soil and water. By linking local sensors to smart irrigation and control, things like sensing pH balance of the soil, gauging local temperature is now possible through remote monitoring and sensing rather than walking the field all the time. This leads to increase in the yield as farmers can save on time and focus on the real issues of farming — pest control, irrigation and amending soil conditions all using sensing and automation.
Companies like Robotics Plus, a startup with USD 10 million funding from Yamaha is planning to deploy its fruit plucking robots into production, while Ecorobotix with their Weed Zapping Robots have gained considerable momentum owing to the growth in Smart farming techniques.
Precision farming system has a lot of dependency on the software management systems. Control systems manage sensory input, delivering remote data for supply and decision support, as well as automation of machines . Basically, it is a standardized business approach balancing the demand and supply side with respect to resource management.
During production, it is mostly resource management from a growth and yield perspective. For instance, precision seeding uses automated tractors to reduce seed loss and seeding with proper space management between different plants. Another example is of precision water delivery.
On the demand side, it is about demand forecasting and delivering goods just in time to reduce waste.
India has always been an agrarian state, and traditional farming methods are manual and too labour intensive. Smart Farming can also provide great benefits in terms of environmental issues, for example, through more efficient use of water and optimisation of treatments and inputs
Credits : Akhil Handa Clint James
Social Equality in Tech
Dear Reader,
Why do we prize technology over everything else? Because it helps us solve problems as efficiently as possible. No one can predict from which gender, ethnicity or nationality the next great idea might come from. And the tech startup sector is a living embodiment of that.
Moving to another part of the world for employment does pose a challenge. And since most tech jobs are located at specific hotspots, many talented workers always find themselves unemployed. Software as a Service products and services are enabling employers to find and employ talent from all over the world. Remote working, work from anywhere and digital nomadism are slowly becoming the new normal. Digital marketing firm Loganix understands the potential of having a diverse team. The company runs almost all its operations globally — with teams of people from the US, Asia, Australia and Europe —employees are dynamically moved between different teams, depending on requirements, allowing quick resolution of issues.
Poor or different communication skills can fuel many workplace misunderstandings. And it costs quite a bit of time and money to learn a new language. The US Foreign Services Institute estimates that it takes on an average 480 hours to gain basic competence in languages. This was a problem that cloud-based tuition service Preply aimed to fix. The platform offers a place for both language tutors and students to collaborate easily and affordably.
Tutors can create their profiles with rates, experience and number of languages spoken; and students can review their tutors, making it easy for other students to decide who to hire. Workers planning to move to another country can use such services to learn a new language far cheaper than attending a language school. HR teams can also hire tutors to educate employees who need to go abroad or new recruits from other countries.
Social inequality isn’t always about creed, gender or nationality. Entrepreneurs are usually handicapped due to high entry barriers in business. Indeed, the cost of acquiring customers is every bit the startup killer it is known to be. Oleg Campbell, a Ukrainian developer who bootstrapped his startup, Reply, to a $2 million a year company, certainly identifies with the struggle. Campbell’s lack of sales experience stalled the growth of his first enterprise. Consequently, he focused his efforts on helping tech entrepreneurs overcome their lack of salesmanship with smarter tools. Reply’s LinkedIn email finder is specifically for new companies looking for affordable, effective lead generation. Such a tool can help a user find email addresses of prospects on LinkedIn. Paired with LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator, users can create highly personalized outreach messages for each prospect.
The tech sector can, and should, be the leader at showcasing the advantages of diversity. By championing the cause of gender diversity through socially agnostic platforms, they are leading the cause of social equality in tech.
Credits : Akhil Handa Prithwijit Ghosh
