IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2021 - 13

Cecilia Laschi, Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore-interested in biorobotics, soft
robotics, humanoid robotics, and
neurorobotics
● Iolanda Leite, Division of Robotics,
Perception, and Learning, KTH Royal
Institute of Technology-develops
social robots that can capture, learn
from, and respond appropriately
to the subtle dynamics of realworld situations
● Karinne Ramirez-Amaro, Electrical
Engineering, Chalmers University of
Technology-advances artificial
intelligence and robotics research in
semantic representations, decision
making, and human activity recognition and understanding.
The panelists have taught a variety of
undergraduate and graduate courses,
ranging from introductory robotics and
applied programming courses to project-based design courses to specialized
courses on human-centered robotics,
autonomous decision-making, human
perception for information technology,
and intelligent robotics, to name a few.
All of the panelists shared their
experiences in best practices for robotics education, provided strategies for
applying these practices to new courses,
discussed major challenges in online
robotics education and how they have
overcome them, and talked about where
they see robotics education headed.
This article shares their perspectives.
●

Robotics Must Remain
Hands-On
Robotics, at its heart, is a multidisciplinary, hands-on field [6]. It invites people to get their hands dirty, persevere
through trial and error, and experience
the thrill of success. These experiences are
fundamental to the field and to the way
students acquire a deep understanding of
robotics concepts [7], [8]. Education
research shows that concrete experience
helps students transfer learning to new
contexts and makes their knowledge
more " flexible " [9], [10]. According to
Karinne, " It has to be a balance between
the theory that they see and the practice
they need to do. " This tenet has always
been true in traditional in-person class-

Karinne Ramirez-Amaro, Chalmers
University of Technology, Sweden.

Shawna Thomas, moderator, Texas A&M
University, USA. Thomas is the author of
this column.

rooms (it is why many robotics courses
have physical labs associated with them)
and remains true in our new teaching climate-with a variety of environments,
from fully in-person to fully remote to a
hybrid model in between.
Carlotta, who has taught courses
ranging from mobile robotics to human
robot interaction to electrical design,
finds that there is no substitute for " tinkering and hacking and making mistakes
with wiring things wrong and seeing
things smoke. So, no matter how it is, get
their hands on something, even if it's just
to see a motor spin. " This can be more
challenging in virtual learning environments but is well worth the effort.
How can robotics educators facilitate
these types of experiences for their students, especially in remote and hybrid
classrooms? Carlotta ships low-cost kits
to students' homes and has students ship
them back in a self-addressed envelope at
the end of the course. Cecilia, a pioneer
in soft robotics research and a long-time
educator, points out that, compared to
teaching even a decade ago, there are
many cost-effective robotics kits available: " My suggestion is to definitely
invest in this part of the course and try
the many robotics kits that are available
today. They're very, very helpful. "
In hybrid learning environments,
where some students are in-person
and some are remote, panelists have
used a buddy system to get students to
work with equipment. In this model,
students work in teams to complete lab
assignments and projects, with one
part of the team physically in the lab

handling the equipment and the other
part participating virtually. Katie, who
teaches both introductory robotics
courses and special topics graduate
courses, finds this model to work well
for her. " Students who are signed up
for the remote labs-they're doing the
simulation, " she notes. " They buddy up
with someone who actually comes
into the lab and works with the robot. "
They can transport what they developed in their simulation to the real
world and still
get that experience by work- Education research
ing with others.
" This sort of shows that concrete
buddy system experience helps
helps ground
a n d e n g a g e students transfer
the students. "
learning to new
Karinne has
also piloted a contexts and makes
web-based solu- their knowledge
tion for students
to smooth out more " flexible. "
issues with different hardware
platforms, configuration settings, and
computing resources: " We keep finding
out that everything is perfectly installed
in the lab, but now that they have to do
it at home, then we have to be creative. "
She has her students log into a web computer connected to the physical lab
equipment. " Students don't need to even
install anything; everything is already
there, " she says; they can actually control
the real robot in the lab from the web
computer. " I think that's a good solution

MARCH 2021

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2021

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