Robots and VR – children shape the future at Code Week Hamburg

By: MRT Desk

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Robots and VR - children shape the future at Code Week Hamburg

With small robots and self-made virtual reality glasses, children and young people can playfully get to know future technologies at Code Week Hamburg. At the kick-off event in the central library of the Hamburg library on Saturday, interested parties could take part in both open offers and workshops with prior registration.

Code Week Hamburg is organized by the Körber Foundation and the Hamburg Book Hall together with various educational initiatives. In 2021 her central theme will be “Mobility of the Future”. “We notice that people are still a little reluctant to take part in open events, but the offers have been well received so far,” said Julian Claaßen, press spokesman for the Körber Foundation, at the start of Code Week on Saturday.

The humanoid robot Nao welcomed the visitors in the entrance area of ​​the central library on Saturday. Children were able to interact with the robot, who spoke and performed a little dance number. So a girl asked him to sit down. A boy asked Nao how he was, who also answered. “The technology is really accessible here. The children talk to the robot as if it were a friend,” said one mother.

A few meters further on, a city map of the future was created on Saturday. With the offer of the “RoboLab” in the library, children could paint paths with color codes. These routes could then be traveled by small autonomous vehicles – so-called ozobots. “We paint how the robot should drive. We have a list of codes for this. For example, if I paint blue, black and again blue next to each other, the robot drives faster,” described a six-year-old who was with her two-year-old brother and her parents were at the event. “I think it’s great how the children can get to know the technology right away. They can see immediately what their painted codes are doing,” said a mother, who was painting part of the city map with her son. The ideas are to be presented on October 14 at the ITS World Congress.

At a workshop of the “Kids4IT” association, children were able to assemble their own little robot from Lego, then program it with the help of a tablet and let it drive around. “We use the” Lego WeDo 2.0 “construction kit for this, which was also designed for use in science classes,” explained workshop leader and freelance computer scientist Fin Labusch. “That was a lot of fun,” said a nine-year-old after the workshop. “The robot has a distance sensor. For example, if I put my hand in its path, it stops,” he said.

Children and young people were also able to gain insights into virtual reality on Saturday. At an offer from the Hamburg Adult Education Center, Sascha Bolte made his own glasses with them. Then they could plug in their cell phones and watch various videos. “I can ride a roller coaster here. It almost feels like the real thing, only the wind is missing,” reported an eleven-year-old. Meanwhile, an eleven-year-old approached lions virtually in the wild.

the Code Week was launched in 2013 by a European initiative. Since then, it has been around Europe in autumn every year. The aim is to promote digital education with creative offers. In Hamburg the action will run until October 24th offered more than 150 different workshops. In addition to Hamburg, Code Week takes place in Germany at eight other locations – including Berlin, Bremen and Baden-Württemberg.


(bme)

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