EU Code Week Romania: Robotics? How can I do that?
Publication date: January 20, 2017
The latest data regarding the progress towards a knowledge economy and a digital society place Romania bottom at EU level in 2015. More specifically, according to the European Commission, only 20% of Romanians have basic digital skills and Romania has the lowest percentage of ICT specialists – only 1.3% of the total taskforce in all EU countries.
Thus, although 8.8 million Romanians have Internet access, and 6.5 million use it every day (70% of the urban population and 44% of the rural population), only 16.9% of Internet users report having acquired ICT skills through formal education (Euractiv, 2015).
Meanwhile, data on labour market dynamics in Europe indicate a 12% increase in occupations requiring STEAM skills from 2003 to 2013, which is three times higher than the total level of employment in Europe.
In this context, Academia inventeaza.ro aims to make technology accessible, fun and relevant in order to prepare aspiring innovators for the decisions that lie ahead, in a field that is ever-evolving and becomes more interwined with every aspect of our lives. And in doing so, we rely not only on using relevant technology stacks, but we always keep an eye for the real world in designing our learning activities. It’s all about seeing the big picture and being able to replicate it at a micro level within the workshops.
EU Code Week and the tech-lover
Being passionate about technology and avid researchers and readers ourselves, we are constantly in search of great applications or opportunities to make technology learning awesome for kids. That is why, being part of the Code Week initiative was a must for us.
As an organization we value quality education not only in terms of content, but also in terms of the learning experience as such. And we know from experience that tech-lovers are avid learners who are interested in discovering what technology has to offer, apart from the obvious.
We strongly believe that learning to code represents a great opportunity to unleash the creativity and discover the world in a logical way which shows every process step by step. Algorithms enable us to think clearly and further develop each idea into something new.
About the program
Academia inventeaza.ro is a “before & after school” educational program which integrates Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) learning since 2011, based on acquiring practical skills in Robotics. The program is modular, tailored according to the age and level of understanding of the participants and is aimed at participants aged 7 to 17 years old.
Kids, university students and parents learn to build robots
Since our everyday mission is to provide aspiring innovators with a backstage tour on how technology comes into being, we seized the opportunity to celebrate the EU Code Week with a series of free robotics workshops organized both at our venue and at the ”Jean Monnet” Highschool in Bucharest.
Because we know that when it comes to learning and technology age doesn’t seem to matter, we added an extra event addressed to university students with a focus on hardware and software prototyping. Similarly, we also invited parents to a talk on the benefits of STEAM education, putting on real world lens.
EU Code Week 2017 a great opportunity
Learning to code is like learning a new language. You need time, determination and passion. Coding, “conversing” with a computer or a smart device requires thinking like it and learning the means to interact with it (going way beyond the mere use of it). You apply the knowledge and gain mastery while deepening the solutions.
That is why we believe that a future involvement in the 2017 edition of Code Week may represent another great opportunity for children to interact with real world applications of coding and for parents to understand the importance of coding in future-proofing their children education.
See you next year at EU Code Week!
