The McRobotface Robotics Club - Create and Launch

About me

Derek is a parent to two children. He holds a PhD in Robotics and Autonomous Systems from the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, a joint collaboration between The University of Edinburgh and Herriot-Watt University. He believes in creating an environment that inspires children, and during his time travelling in Nepal, he created scientific experimental procedures with local materials to change how kids in Nepal learn Science from only reading textbooks to hands-on experimentation. He believes in creating an environment for kids to strive. He aims to change the STEM environment in the local community to inspire the next generation of roboticists. 

The approach is based on Piaget's model of children's cognitive development from ages 4 to 11 and Sperry's model of left-right brain functions to make the most of the concrete operational stage to grow their curiosity in STEM subjects and their sequential processing development. The McRobotface's Robotics Club also encourages parents and children to spend time together to explore new interests. His experience in keeping search and rescue helicopters at 100% availability will be applied to ensure the equipment are 100% ready every time.

The vision

This crowdfund aims to launch the McRobotface Robotics Club to inspire the next generation of roboticists. Why? Robots are fun to play with and the younger generations will undoubtedly need to interact with some sort of robotics technology around us. Robotics and coding will unlock creativity and sequential processing for the growing minds from a young age. Robotics have advanced significantly in the last 10 years, and our STEM environment should evolve too. Vex Robotics kits have been commonly used in classrooms in the USA for the last few years, and regular competitions are inspiring young generations of roboticists to take part. We want our local community to have affordable access and develop their STEM interests. We picked the Vex 123 and Go kits. Kids can use the 123 kits as sensory robots from ages 4 plus. The Go kits are suitable for aged 7 onwards. Kids can discover robotics and coding from a young age and develop their interests in the curiosity stage from ages 7 to 11. 

The off-the-shelf educational materials can be used immediately. Workshops with experts and postgraduates in different Research Groups at the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics can further design and derive play activities to customise and refine the topics relevant to the current research field. McRobotface Club will create a roadmap to robotic competitions to encourage participation across Edinburgh. Robotics competitions open up new activities in Edinburgh. In addition, competitions will enhance teamwork and leadership skills and create new friendships.

What will the money be spent on?

McRobotface is looking to crowdfunding to remove the price barrier of expensive educational robotics hardware and costs to launch the “McRobotface Roboticists Club”. Community crowdfunding can react quickly to any emerging educational possibilities and find the right people to deliver innovative and exciting activities. Technology is rapidly developing, as well as the available hardware and activities around us. We grasp the opportunities and keep up with the times. Little Plaza is combining a wide range of interests, expertise and passions accessible from a single place.  

The funding required is estimated at £6,000 for the hardware, training, promotion and the hiring of subject matter experts to unlock the full potential of the equipment and deliver the activity sessions. Subsequent revenue generated will be reinvested into more robots and, subsequently, the start of regional competitions. The aim will be termly competitions to unlock the creativity and innovation of the local kids. The successful rollout will provide the revenue and blueprint to expand to the older 11+ age groups, with more sophisticated robots and sensors.  

• Purchase of robotics hardware - Start of a robotics club. 
• Training with experts - to ensure quality delivery of the educational material
• Promotional material, leaflets, and posters - to get the words out to parents
• Arrange workshops with Edinburgh-based Robotics Research Groups for Outreach sessions - to inspire the next generation of roboticists
• Develop unique robotics activities with experts in Edinburgh that are relevant to current research topics. 
• Creation of Robotics Competitions in Edinburgh
• Venue in centre of Edinburgh provided by Little Plaza, a family orientated space. 

Outcomes

• McRobotface Robotics Club weekly blog updates and development direction. 
• McRobotface Robotics Club sessions are available to the local community at a comparable kids' activity price.
• Robotics competitions.
• Customised robotics competitions, which are unique to Edinburgh with Postgraduate level input for inspiration.
• Creation of an initiative that will last the test of time.  

My previous projects and travels. 

I like to create contents that stand the test of time.  

My previous travels from 2010. 

My insights in Private Tuition.  

Chun, H.T.D., Roberts, J.O., Sayed, M.E., Aracri, S. and Stokes, A.A., 2019, April. Towards more energy efficient pneumatic soft actuators using a port-hamiltonian approach. In 2019 2nd IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft) (pp. 277-282). IEEE.

Chun, H.T.D., Taylor, N.K. and Stokes, A.A., 2023. Energy‐Based Abstraction for Soft Robotic System Development. Advanced Intelligent Systems, 5(4), p.2000264.

My brief contribution to the field of science.