European Robotics Week 2014 broke all records: 500 robotics events were organised in Europe
Toulouse Communication Centre The heart of the European Robotics Week 2014 was the Communication Centre at Cité de l’Espace (Toulouse) which was also host to a plethora of events around robotics. Khalil Rouhana, the Director for "Components & Systems" in DG CONNECT – European Commission was a keynote speaker at the opening of the event in Toulouse on the 28th November. 'European youngsters want to be the pioneers of robotics, the first to discover the combination of fun and learning. Robotics is becoming an important factor in European economy and society. This reflects the excitement of European Robotics Week 2014', said Uwe Haass, Secretary General of euRobotics AISBL. Organised by euRobotics AISBL, European Robotics Week has so far attracted over 100,000 people during its three years of existence and encouraged young and old to become involved in hundreds of different robotics related activities year after year. Highlights for European Robotics Week 2014 Czech Republic – Café Neu Romance: 'Golem & the Mechanical Man of the Future' Meet some of the World's best LEGO MINDSTORMS experts when they are holding workshops, and meet robotics artist headliner Fernando Orellana from El Salvador, Slovakian AI-professor Jozef Kelemen, Dr. Rupert Young and the 'bionic robotics arm man' Nigel Ackland, both from the UK. Finland – Robotics Finland initiative organised a major event in Helsinki where Minister Paula Risikko, and member of the Parliament, Pekka Haavisto, were invited. Part of EU Code Week and Robotics Week, 'Interested in Coding and Robotics?' is a series of workshops run by teachers and students from Innokas Network schools. France – Competitions organised by the European RoCKIn project saw teams from throughout Europe put their robots to the test through scenarios and tasks that are highly relevant to real world processes in factories or in a home environment. Italy – The 2nd edition of the AI and Cognition workshop 2014 (AIC 2014) brought together researchers coming from different domains (e.g. artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, engineering, philosophy, social sciences, etc.) to work on the interdisciplinary field of cognitively inspired artificial systems. Spain – Over 100 robotics related events took place all over Spain, from Madrid (37 events) to Barcelona (34 events), from San Sebastian to A Coruna, from Caceres to Malaga. Events target: pupils of all ages, as young as 3 years old, parents and teachers. Workshops were built around various topics such as building robots, 3D printing, programming or flying drones. euRobotics AISBL aims to promote excellence in robotics by providing many networking opportunities to its members from both industry and academia, to exchange knowledge within the robotics community and to shape the future of robotics in Europe through cooperation between both sides. One of the association’s main missions is to collaborate with the European Commission (EC) to develop and implement a strategy and a roadmap for research, technological development and innovation in robotics, under the Public-Private Partnership 'SPARC' within Horizon 2020. A full report of the European Robotics Week 2014 will be available on the website this month: http://www.eu-robotics.net/eurobotics-week/about-eurobotics-week/ Contact: Website: www.robotics-week.eu Philip Piatkiewicz, euRobotics AISBL t. +32 2 706 8198 e. philip.piatkiewicz@eu-robotics.net
Countries
Belgium, Czechia, Spain, Finland, France, Italy