Bringing programming -- and social change -- to girls: 'Co-Robots for CompuGirls' gets students to think about how robots can address human problems
Description
Survey after survey has shown a lack of women engaged in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. It's an utterly human problem, but one group of eighth-grade girls recently experimented with a way to address at least one aspect of it -- with robots. The students, participating in a program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) called Co-Robots for CompuGirls, programmed a pair of two-foot, identical humanoid "Nao" robot avatars to help with the process of interviewing for a STEM position.
Funded through the National Robotics Initiative, a multi-agency effort led by NSF, Co-Robots for CompuGirls is a collaboration between Andrew B. Williams, director of the Humanoid Engineering and Intelligent Robotics (HEIR) Lab at Marquette University, and Kimberly Scott, PI of the CompuGirls ITEST Project.
Read more about this project's efforts to bring robotics education to underrepresented girls:
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=138790&WT.mc_id=US…
