The Czech European Researchers´ Night 2020, exploring the theme of Humans and Robots, was held completely online for the first time. The platform www.nocvedcu.cz offered virtual interactive tours, online discussions, educational videos, remote workshops, streamed broadcasts, live science shows and podcasts, observations of stars and much more. Each interactive activity dealt with the topic Humans and Robots.
Organisers focused on key current topics, such as digitisation, robotisation or automation, taking the industrial and technological perspectives, but also the context of human life. It was also a commemoration of the 130th birth anniversary of Karel Čapek, a Czech writer, and the 100th anniversary of RUR, his play in which the word robot was coined.
Čapek's work is still a hot topic of potential misuse of science, dehumanization of relationships in society and of the risks associated with the development of artificial intelligence, therefore his timeless visions can be understood as warning for future generations.
The theme “Humans and Robots” was covered not only by universities, but also science and research centres, observatories and planetariums around the Czech Republic. More than a hundred institutions were involved in the event. Each institution approached the online environment differently, and the programme, which was available on the platform nocvedcu.cz was therefore equally diverse.
A network of Eurocentres joined the programme as well to disseminate information about the EU for the general public and experts and to educate and entertain families with children. They offered numerous activities, such as videos, quizzes, competitions or Actionbound, a virtual trip to interesting spots with special tasks,”
The event also aimed to approach English speaking audiences. The central web and 22 programme items were translated into English and tagged “English friendly”.
A total of 49 items were selected and translated into sign language and tagged Český znakový jazyk (Czech sign language. The event was for the first time translated into the Czech sign language. The attendance of hearing impaired was large and the feedback very positive.
Visitors really enjoyed the resulting online content, moreover it has been used by primary- and secondary-school teachers as an additional material in virtual classes, which has been held in a great deal of schools these days.
The Night outcomes:
The event was organised by 19 universities and 22 other organisations in a total of 38 cities in the Czech Republic. A total of 121 employees employed under the project, and further roughly 900 researchers and other staff (students, employees, managers, IT experts, etc.) participated in the preparation of the event.
A total of almost 700 program items were created by the involved institutions. 86 thousand unique visitors had visited the website nocvedcu.cz. On aggregate, the pages were viewed 667 thousand times, with visitors spending 3:42 on the web on average.
