EU Code Week is a grass-roots movement that celebrates creativity, problem solving and collaboration through programming and other tech activities. The idea is to make programming more visible, to show young, adults and elderly how you bring ideas to life with code, to demystify these skills and bring motivated people together to learn.

It is called Academia: simulated practice and is a platform for students who are finishing Vocational Education courses and can thus apply for Higher Education. The project was developed within the scope of ANPRI (National Association of Teachers of Informatics) and is aimed at students of VET courses, especially those in the last year, that is, the 3rd year, which corresponds to the 12th year (EQF 4). These students should be carrying out a training stage in a workplace, but with most companies closed or telecommuting due to the pandemic situation caused by COVID-19, there is no possibility of internships.

Have you ever wondered if your school is making the most of digital technologies for teaching and learning? If so, we present to you the SELFIE tool, developed by the European Commission. It is a free, easy-to-use, customisable tool to help schools assess where they stand with learning in the digital age. Curious? Click the link for more details!

A recent study published in June 2020 by the Spanish Ministry of Education and VET reveals the most popular VET qualifications among the students

“In June 2020, the Ministry of Education and VET of Spain published the National System of Indicators in Education report, updated annually, that aims to “contribute to the knowledge and evaluation of the system and guide decision-making in the institutions and sectors involved in education”. Apart from giving very specific information about the Education System at all its levels, the report offers detailed data about the employability, unemployment tax and average income according to the level of studies accomplished. The report also analyses the influence of variables as gender, age or geographical location of the population, both in Spain and the European Union.
In the EU, the population’s level of education reveals that in 2019, 78.7% of the people between 25-64 has accomplished Secondary Education studies or upper.

The popularity of VET in Spain is increasing the last years, narrowing the distance with the EU countries.

The project “Learning by competing” offers the opportunity to share learning modules on robotics for students among Europe through a free accessible plateform. During a discovery session, we presented how the plateform works to allow them to discover its ergonomics, its usefulness and its accessibility.

The health crisis invites us to strengthen the social, digital and educational engineering of hybrid learning (synchronous, asynchronous) through an smart arrangement of digital tools and devices. The multiplicity of means used for teaching is likely to undermine this learning. We also explained them the interest of the e-learning platform created and designed for this project which allows them to train online, learn, see and review courses, assess themselves with interactive and fun content on robotics, for example.

According to OECD, robotics would not lead to fewer jobs for humans. While technological progress makes occupations obsolete, it also creates new jobs. In the next years, 14% of jobs could be automated, with more significantly changing. But, many adults do not have the right skills for emerging jobs. 6 out of 10 adults lack basic ICT skills or have no computer experience.

Therefore, a project like Learning by competing in robotics area is helpful to adress the need and anticipate the ecosystem changes.

The Educational Robotics Olympics are organized by the Directorate-General for school systems and the evaluation of the national education system and are managed, by agreement, by a school or an entity awarded the ordinary restricted procedure.

In the context of the European Robotics Week 2020 (ERW2020), euRobotics has encouraged national coordinators and event organisers to come up with and share as many online robotics education resources and activities as possible: webinars, chats, discussion boards, quizzes etc. National coordinators and event organisers will discuss during an online meeting organised by euRobotics and moderated by Steve Doswell how robotics education and ERW2020 have been facing the COVID-19 crisis.

The European Commision’s White Paper on Artificial Intelligence is the European approach to excellence and trust regarding the digital transformation that is there for all to see. Digital transformation must be at the service of all, must reflect the founding characteristics of the European Union and, among these, respect for fundamental rights and freedoms.

The 24th edition of the RoboCup will take place in France from June 22 to 28, 2021, at the Parc des Expositions de Bordeaux.

La RoboCup a pour objectif de favoriser l’intérêt, la pratique et la connaissance des sciences afférentes. C’est la plus grande compétition de Robotique et d’Intelligence Artificielle du monde.

Educational robots enable students of all ages to become familiar with and deepen their knowledge of robotics and programming, while at the same time learning other cognitive skills.
The word robot was invented by Czech writer Karel Capek to designate the automata in his science fiction play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), which premiered in Prague in 1921. A word coined by Capek from the Czech term robota, which refers to hard work.

ESIEESPACE is the electronics, robotics and aerospace student association of the ESIEE Paris engineering school.

La SumoBot est une compétition annuelle de combat de robots ouverte au public et à tous les niveaux. L’objectif est de construire un petit robot autonome qui doit trouver et pousser son adversaire en dehors du terrain de jeu circulaire, à l’image d’un combat de sumos. Les participants sont séparés en deux catégories : débutant et expert.

The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, declares that soon there will be a specific law that regulates the VET courses in Spain.

El presidente añade que “La mayor parte de las ofertas de trabajo que va a haber de aquí a muy pocos años van a ser ofertas de trabajo de cualificaciones intermedias, que es donde España está peor”. Es por ello que el gobierno de coalición pone sobre la mesa la necesidad de elaborar legislación propia de la Formación Profesional, con el fin de fortalecer y consolidar este área educativa.

Robotics is taking center stage in many aspects of our lives. The 33rd National Spanish Congress of Surgery was celebrated the past month of November. The president of the Spanish Association of Surgery declared that “Nowadays, our speciality is passing through a very exciting moment thank to robotics”, due to the progressive implementation of guided surgery and robotics -as well as AI and big data – in this kind of health interventions. These advances are allowing to perform much safer surgeries, more individualized and respectful with the patients. If you have doubts on how do robots perform in an actual surgery, don’t miss this video!

Maker Space and Shop, the new robotics academy, opens in Pontevedra to teach robotics to children.

No es la primera vez que hablamos de la combinación de niños y robótica: durante los últimos años, la robótica ha surgido como una de las actividades extraescolares estrella entre los más pequeños. En la gallega ciudad de Pontevedra ha abierto sus puertas “Maker Space and Shop”, una academia de robótica en la que los chavales podrán aprender a ensamblar robots con materiales reciclados – ayudados por una impresora 3D – y programarlos a través de un IPad.

Some information to create awareness of need in companies for people with robotics experience thus entailing the need for schools to provide courses on these subjects in order to provide the workforce required in today’s world.

La robotica è un settore che sta acquistando sempre maggiore importanza scientifica, tecnologica ed economica ed è uno dei punti caratterizzanti le recenti trasformazioni industriali e del lavoro.

Technology and Robotics are moving from a specialised area of engineering to a situation where they are fully integrated into everyday life in society. Many European school curricula now reflect this change and subjects such as; Technology, Computer Science and Programming/Coding are beginning to reappear, creating increasing demands upon teachers at all levels from primary level education to upper secondary school and beyond.

A short description of dates and how to register for the 2021 Automation Olympics for high schools.

29 gennaio 2021 – Chiusura delle iscrizioni
21 maggio 2021 – Invio progetto
28 maggio 2021 – Proclamazione vincitori
giugno 2021 – Premiazione

A push to automate is changing the way humans and machines work together. The number of industrial robots installed in factories reached about 3 million units worldwide in 2020 – more than doubling in ten years, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). The IFR has researched how robotics training shapes current and future workforce education, enhancing skills development for employees.
“Automating dull, dirty and dangerous tasks is changing job profiles of factory workers for the better,” said Milton Guerry, IFR president. “Academies run by robot manufacturers play a key role in making this transition possible. Employers send thousands of workers to robotics training every year.”

The National Association of Computer Science Teachers (ANPRI) explains that participation in the project implies that teachers of computer science make the proposal in their schools, so that it can be integrated as a school offer, complement to artistic education, workshop, club or other initiative created within the flexibility and autonomy of schools.

Universal Robots Academy has set up a new training course, called “Educational Robotics”, intended to students and teachers of universities and high schools. The goal of the Educational program is to authorize teachers to teach in their classrooms and allow them to become UR recognized certifiers.

An overview of the effects of Covid-19 on the dynamics that led to the birth of worker robots. This will endanger jobs and makes the need to rethink the society.

Due to Covid restrictions, the French team, the Roosters, participated in the first mobility from France but during the same week as the other teams. Click here to see more.

In Portugal, there are many businesses supporting IT and Robotics education in schools. Thus, expressions such as the classroom of the future, programming, robotics or virtual reality appear in the school context as support tools for the use of technology in teaching. Both robotics and virtual reality are two technologies that will increasingly influence not only the way we teach and learn, but also the way companies of the future operate, with a special focus on the retail sector – one of the largest employers in the country. To achieve this, the companies offer schools theoretical and practical training with collaborative robots “for students who will certainly be called to work on projects during their apprenticeship or at the end of their studies.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the company’s robot, named Optimus, will be “worth more than the car business, worth more than FSD.”FSD, or “full self-driving,” is Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system that relies on cameras and computer vision technology to perform some autonomous driving tasks. An FSD subscription costs Tesla owners about $12,000, or up to $199 per month. The executive shared during the company’s first-quarter 2022 earnings call that Tesla is continuing to work on its robot. Optimus was first introduced in August 2021 during Tesla’s inaugural AI Day. The 5’8″ robot will rely on Tesla’s work in neural networks and Dojo advanced supercomputer, and Musk envisions it performing tasks that can otherwise be described as human drudgery — things like grocery shopping and other everyday tasks.

Guimarães received, in April 2022 and after a two-year pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2022 edition of RoboParty, an event that brings together, for three days and two nights, 400 participants in what is considered the world’s largest gathering related to “educational robotics” for young people in high school. The goal is for them to learn how to build a “mobile and autonomous robot from scratch”. First they learn to “solder the electronic components on a board”, which is then assembled “on a structure with wheels and motors”. Then there is an incursion into programming, through the Arduino platform, in a “very simple” language. In the end, and because RoboParty is not a competition, there are no prizes, but the participants keep their robots, which they can take home or to schools to continue learning related to robotics.

The seventh edition of Bot Olympics took place in Coimbra between April 21 and 24, 2022. The competition, organized by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Students Association of Coimbra (NEEEC/AAC) in partnership with the Robotics Club of Coimbra University (CR/UC), is composed of three competitions for different students, from primary, secondary and higher education. This educational and training event, certified with the Portugal INCoDe 2030 Seal, “has as its main goal to make the world of robotics and the field of electrical engineering known, from a fun and simple perspective, to captivate young people to a huge area that is the future of the world around us,” explain the organizers.

The importance of Robotics has been growing in our daily life. This growth has been provided by initiatives created by universities, one of which is Bot Olympics. Bot Olympics is a robotics competition that this year will be held at the University of Coimbra. The Learning by Competing project uses many of the strategies that have been used in universities to promote robotics in VET.

The Learning by Competing project wants to promote robotics in the European panorama as we believe that this area is of great importance for the evolution of the human being. Proof of this importance is the amount of aspects that have been improved thanks to robotics. One of these cases is medicine, as you can see in the link below.

A Cambridge-based company has made significant step forwards in its development of a range of fruit harvesting robots to support the agriculture sector. The raspberry picking robots developed by Fieldwork Robotics have now been deployed commercially in two locations in Portugal.

The European Commission consider that new emerging technologies could be as considered as new opportunities to monitor air and water pollution. It optimise use of energy and natural resources, and they can facilitate evidence-based decisions and expand the capacity to understand and tackle environmental challenges. They suggest many actions that connect the digital with green transformation as A new EU industrial strategy to support the green and digital transformation of the EU, They propose also to develop an new strategy that will develop a high precision digital model of the Earth and will boost the EU’s ability to predict and manage environmental disasters etc And many other action which insure that EU rules on green public procurement cover all ICT products and services.

Exotec devient la 25ème « licorne » française créée par Romain Moulin et Renault Heitz en 2015. Elle recrutera 1 500 personnes dans les prochaines années. Exotec est une start-up qui est spécialisée dans la conception des systèmes robotisés pour l’optimisation de la préparation de commande de ceux qui interviennent dans le e-commerce. D’ailleurs, elle prévoit de recruter environ 500 ingénieurs en recherche et développement de plus (elle travaille avec 370 collaborateurs à ce jour) à l’horizon 2025. Si vous avez les compétences requises, vous pouvez candidater. L’entreprise a mis sur le marchéle système « Skypod ». C’est une solution de préparation de commande au détail. Ce système offre les meilleures performances du marché tout en restant flexible et adaptable en fonction des besoins du client. Sa particularité ? Le dimensionnement prend en compte de manière indépendante les besoins de stockage et les flux, ce qui permet d’adapter aux besoins exacts du client et de phaser ensuite en fonction de la croissance.

At the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid, a pioneering robot in Spain has performed heart surgery on 65 people since June to date.

Spain ranks tenth among the countries that invest the most in robotics technology, with 53,000 robots installed in 2018, or 16.8 per thousand workers. In total, it is estimated that the companies that will use this technology the most will be automotive, electronics, metallurgy and those related to the manufacture of machinery, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR, for its acronym in English), which on Monday released the data in London. According to figures collected in the UK, 74% of staff think that the importance of robotics will increase in the future, and 68% say that the development of this type of technology is essential and essential for the competitiveness of the company.