If ideas espoused in sci-fi films fill you with fear, then being alive at this particular time in history must be a living nightmare for you. Robocop and all the quaint ideas of 90’s sci-fi are neither quaint nor are they mere ideas. Establishments all across countries like Japan have begun employing real life robots for everything from serving in restaurants to caring for the elderly. China employs Artificial Intelligence at ports of entry to eliminate the need for long queues at customs. A year or so ago, a team at the BBC carried out a radical experiment in conjunction with Chinese police to see just how long it would take to find a “criminal” in one of China’s highly populated mega-cities. The results were an astonishing seven minutes, thanks to a complex system of face recognition AI technology woven into the very fabric of everyday Chinese life.

The future is certainly now, and one of those leading the charge into this brilliant AI future is Sotirios Stasinopoulos, co-founder and CEO of Popular Robotics. Stasinopoulos, a native of Greece, came to Beijing over nine years ago to pursue two of his passions – the Chinese language and robotics. “I did my undergrad in Electrical & Computer Engineering and my Master’s degree in Computer Vision in Athens, Greece, where I am from, and I moved to Beijing in 2011 to do an internship and continue studying Chinese, something that I had started as a hobby back in Greece, but was really interested in. A year after that, I started my PhD in Robotics and Automation in Tsinghua University,” recounts Stasinopoulos. And like many Chinese university educated expats in China, he decided to stay on, working for a leading robotics company – UBTech Robotics – before venturing out and starting his own business.

Sotirios Stasinopoulos

Talking about AI is all well and good, but what exactly are robots? I will admit to have a whimsical idea of what a robot is, and it is a cross between the Transformers and Rosie the robot maid from the Sixties cartoon The Jetsons. “Robotics is the study of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Robots are machines that can be used to perform tasks, either by people controlling them, or by accomplishing them by themselves, autonomously,” explains Stasinopoulos. “Robots are a combination of their mechanical bodies and the software/programs that make these mechanical bodies move, analyze their environments, and perform tasks. Robotics entails different disciplines such as: mathematics, physics, biology, mechanical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence, and automation technology, including sensors, controllers, etc. All of these are needed to create the systems that a robot needs in order to operate.”

If that still sounds rather daunting to wrap your head around, it is understandable. It might also be one of the reasons why kids fear entering into the world of not only engineering, but that of robotics.  This field still remains a mystery for those interested, with there being a wealth of information online but rarely any direct way in which to experiment.

Stasinopoulos (center) after being selected as one of the top 30 entrepreneurs in China in 2019

“Traditionally, the first contact with robotics would happen during some university courses in undergrad majors, such as electrical/computer/mechanical engineering, automation, or others. But the knowledge would be on a more theoretical level and more hands-on experience would be gained in a subsequent Master’s and PhD degree in Robotics. In recent years, with the advent of online education and the availability of more resources for self-learning, but also because of the progress of AI technology, students have access to hands-on robotics education from younger ages.” Such has been the situation according to Stasinopoulos, until recently, when he and other like-minded engineers hosted robotics camps with an aim to offer this much needed hands-on experience to the younger generation.

China, as a nation, has set itself apart as a leader in this field, constantly producing some of the top engineering minds globally, while offering conducive and competitive programs to both encourage creativity and innovation. And yet, a concern held all around the world about demographics within fields under the wide umbrella of hard sciences cannot be escaped. Despite a growth in numbers in the participation of female engineers in the promising field of robotics, they still make up a marginal 30 percent of the total. “We still have a lot of a work to do towards this direction and it needs to start from a young age. Young girls should be encouraged to explore more engineering-related projects, and building machines and robots should not only be considered as a thing boys should enjoy,” advises Stasinopoulos.

And on how to get kids into engineering and robotics, Stasinopoulos has a few words of wisdom: “An engineering way of thinking, which is the basis of robotics, can be cultivated from an early age, by taking part in classes that encourage kids to analyze how things are built and assembled, but also the reason why they were built this way along with the function that their structure serves. But also, classes that give them the creative freedom to build their own devices to accomplish specific tasks, not limiting their imaginations. If that creative spark is ignited from a young age, it can help a lot in kids having the curiosity and resourcefulness to take on engineering problems and figure out solutions. Afterwards, parents should expose kids to programming and robotics courses from an age that they can be computer literate, meaning from when they can start handling computers on their own. There are different levels of difficulty in coding skills that fit different ages, but students can be introduced to simpler coding types from as young as 5-6 years old. Students 5-10 years are best suited to use more visual, block-based programming tools, such as Scratch or Blockly, whereas 10-year-old students and above could begin to study more complex programming languages, such as Python or C/C++, which are closer to the ones used in real professional environments. Parents can expose their kids to workshop series or camps that teach these skills and keep some continuity in this sort of education in order to build their kids’ capabilities, but also their confidence that robotics is something they can accomplish, not just for PhD experts.”

Whether or not this feels digestible or still feels quite daunting a topic to wrap one’s head around, it is an inescapable fact that Artificial Intelligence is not just a fad, but the future of innovation. Panic-stricken individuals across the world worry about being rendered redundant by automation of certain industries, but this should not be worth worrying about in the event that we encourage our children to not only familiarize themselves with the inner workings of the industry, but to explore and grow their talents as rapidly as the industry itself is evolving. “AI applications are already finding their ways into tasks we perform on an everyday basis, and although only some low level robots, such as robot floor sweepers and hotel delivery robots, have found their ways to consumer environments for now, in the following three to five years more task-specific robots will make consumers’ lives easier, and we have the first multi-tasking robot assistants in nine to ten years from now. With the continuous progress of AI, these robots will be able to intelligently perform tasks while integrating into our existing environments. This revolution will happen globally, but countries like China are definitely in the forefront of developing such intelligent robots,” admits Stasinopoulos. Simply put, China is ground zero for this next step of such innovation.

Stasinopoulos is just one among several brilliant minds directly involved in mentoring and training kids in the field of robotics. “We have organized workshops in Beijing No.4 High School International Campus and RDFZ – 人大附中- Chaoyang International High School, and have been providing our courses as an ASA for the International Montessori School of Beijing (MSB) since September 2019, while starting a new cooperation from next semester with Beanstalk International Bilingual School (BIBS). The mode of cooperation with these schools has been in two distinct ways: we provide a teacher and the content for the ASA courses, or we train their teachers to be able to teach the courses based on the content on our online platform Robociti and the accompanying robotic hardware we provide. We are very eager to work with even more international schools in 2020,” says Stasinopoulos. The future is indeed promising in the world of robotics. As schools continue to embrace it as a necessary subject, schoolkids will undoubtedly turn our sci-fi nightmares into a beautiful futuristic AI reality.

Photos: courtesy of Sotirios Stasinopoulos, jain.software

Last week (Nov 13-16) educators, students, parents, and staff from across Beijing’s international school community and beyond gathered at Western Academy of Beijing’s (WAB) campus for a wide-ranging conference entitled Future of Education Now: A Festival of Learning (FOEN2019). The totality of the event was an ambitious investigation into current trends, the problems facing educators and students, as well as the progressive solutions being put forth to tackle these issues, and better prepare the learners of today for the uncertainty and consistently shifting landscape of tomorrow.

Beijingkids attended the final day of the conference, and here’s a quick recap of what we took away.

The festivities opened with an inspiring keynote address from author and Director of Impact at Silicon Valley’s Singularity University, Brett Schilke, who leads partnerships and program development for K-12 education. Schilke’s address served to contextualize the overarching themes of the conference, and shed light on the idea that “We can’t prepare our kids for a future they will not find.”

Ultimately, Schilke advocated for the notion that we should no longer be asking young people what they want to be when they grow up, but rather, what they want to enable in the world. He illustrated his point by breaking down the example of a child who expresses interest in becoming a doctor. According to Schilke, the medical industry, from physicians to pharmacists, is one of the most at-risk sectors for disruption and automation, and the skills a student may learn about medicine today very well could be obsolete by the time they finish college. Thus, Schilke advises that the student reframe their ambitions from, “I want to be a doctor,” to, “I want to help people,” thus offering them a wider scope through which to consider their career choice.

Moreover, given the fact that the current body of human knowledge doubles every 13 months, and will accelerate to an unprecedented doubling every 12 hours by the end of the 21st century, coupled with an amount of progress within the same timeframe to rival the last 20,000 years of history, Schilke thinks we should be focusing on “forecasting”, or trend-spotting. That is, students should be asking themselves how tech will change the industry they want to go into, and seriously consider such new realities as computer thinking, and the social and ethical implications of technological developments.

As Schilke so succinctly put it, “We teach history, why not teach the future?”

Another stellar presentation came from hometown hero John D’Arcy, WAB’s Deputy Director, who introduced the FLoW21 initiative, or Future of Learning at WAB. A couple years ago, D’Arcy and his team realized it was due time to restructure some of the policies, curriculums, and approaches to learning at WAB, and thus they began conversations around these topics. What made the process unique however was the fact that these discussions didn’t take place behind administrators’ closed doors, but involved every stakeholder, including the students themselves.

One particularly fascinating change that resulted from FLoW21 was the Day 9 Program, which allows students to build their own schedules on every ninth day of instruction. According to D’Arcy, this program makes space for students to “own” their time, and focus some of their efforts on those subjects that they are truly passionate about, or seek out further instruction for classes they may be struggling with. All in all, Day 9 tells the students, in no uncertain terms, that their success is ultimately in their own hands, and that, with this amount of freedom, the faculty at WAB trusts them to make good decisions.

While student agency and decision making was front-and-center throughout the conference, it really came to the fore during FOEN2019’s closing address, which was in fact presented by a collection of students who had attended the conference on behalf of various schools.

Over the course of the four days, they worked together to come up with the following mission statement:

“In order to be supportive, personalized and academically successful, a school should be student-centered, feature numerous approaches to learning, and offer a curriculum with real-world connections along with mentor support.”

They devised strategies that would be easy to implement, yet could have significant impacts on student prosperity, such as weekly well-being sessions, weekly student-teacher lunches, and the inclusion of students in more decision-making processes.

Simply put, it was a poignant end to a poignant week, and here at beijingkids, we are very excited about the future of education now!

Despite the fact that our realities are becoming both increasingly globalized and lived behind screens, there is a simultaneous push to develop community-oriented projects that favor sustainable solutions at home, and it’s these two areas of focus that will be front and center at the Leadership Innovation & Future Thinking (LIFT) High School Forum.

Hosted by Yale Center Beijing and Philanthropy in Motion (PIM), LIFT will run from October to December, during which time students will develop a project that addresses the issues laid out under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The program requires one session each month at Yale Center Beijing, which is further supplemented by online mentorship sessions.

By the end of the forum, the teams will have completed a project design, presented it to a panel of judges, and received critical feedback, culminating in a program certificate and/or letter of recommendation for those ideas that are truly exceptional. Additionally, students will have the chance to enter their projects in some of the biggest international and domestic competitions such as “China Thinks Big.”

Though there is an application process, and space is limited, selected students can expect Ivy League-level instruction through workshops led by PIM Co-Founder and Yale graduate, Jasmine Lau, as well as Yale’s Tsai City Program Director, Onyeka Obiocha. What’s more, students will be working under the mentorship of members from Harvard, Columbia, Oxford, and more.

PIM Co-Founder and Yale graduate, Jasmine Lau

The deadline to apply is September 16, and requires an application, a deposit of RMB 2000, and two short-answer essays.

Eligible applicants should be in grades 9-12, be proficient in English (scores of 80 or higher on TOEFL and similar English level tests are recommended), be able to contribute to discussions and work in a team setting, and are self-motivated with a desire to challenge oneself.

If selected, the overall program fee is RMB 26,800, and includes participation in the forum for both online and offline sessions, as well as lunch during the on-site sessions. For an additional fee, Yale Center Beijing can arrange hotel accommodation near the campus. And for friends who want to apply together, there is a 5% “buddy discount.” Last, but certainly not least, one lucky candidate who demonstrates financial need will be awarded the merit-based PIM Fellowship, a full fee waiver on the entire program.

While acceptance to the program is contingent on each applicant’s abilities, enrollment is first-come, first-served. So hurry up and get those applications in.

For more information, and to apply, visit https://pimchina.org/en/lift/

Photos: PIM, Phi Foundation

Though 2017 will bring a significant amount of attention to China’s One Belt, One Road, we’re excited to see the completion of these China-based tech projects coming down the pipeline.

Bionic Fish Drone
Step away from everything you know about drones and start thinking about taking this tech underwater. That’s exactly what the makers of BIKI, the first bionic robot fish, did. Pictured above, this tech was developed by Dr. Xiong Minglei of Peking Univiersty, and the campaign has raised way more than the original set goal. There are still early bird deals available to get this tech in your hands or in your classroom for solving water-pollution problems and answering marine-life questions.

Augmented Reality Lens
We’re counting down the days until we’re living at home with augmented reality and where there is Hololens-type tech situated on every face. Maybe those days are far into the future, but this affordable mixed reality tech is chipping at the problem in a more cost-efficient way than it’s big-business competitors. Admittedly, it’s aesthetically rudimentary compared to the more famous versions.

Teeny, Tiny Phone
We’re not going to make any spy jokes while on this side of the border, but maybe preventing travel theft is a better application anyway. We do see that this will make preventing cell phones in class particularly impossible for those dinosaur schools that still refuse to apply tech to teaching.

Cellphone Camera Microscope
Make a STEAM teacher happy and get this in their professional-development gift-bag this year. At an inexpensive CA $78, we can’t see why a classroom set wouldn’t make it to the shopping cart either. The maker of this tech is also developing apps to make the microscope tech more user-friendly than just acting as a magnifying glass.

Building Blocks for STEM Classrooms
If you’re concerned about helping young students understand circuits without soldering and coding coming into play, DFRobot has thought up a simple solution by providing a kit for the classroom. The kit works with lights, tiny movable parts, and even LEGO.

Entrepreneurial Game
Before you swamp through an entrepreneurial project-based learning experience, let your students brainstorm with this really cool innovators game. The card game sets the scenario for lifelike examples of users, features, challenges, and boosters.

Flexible-bulb Lamp
Stepping away from hardcore tech and the classroom into creative life designs, we found Art Lamp. This cool purposeful décor lets you reshape the light wire to come up with any shape you desire. It’s meant to fit in with any environment, but especially to promote daily creativity.

Never Sleep-Through Alarm
Unless someone can sleep through an earthquake, this alarm clock will surely help even the grouchiest of teenagers wake up.

These projects are still ongoing or have been fully funded and are waiting release. Check out Kickstarter for other innovative projects in China that have been funded throughout the years.

Photos: Kickstarter.com

If you didn’t get a chance to make it to the Innovation Expo at the International School of Beijing (ISB) last Saturday, you missed out!

The event was open to the public and free. Students of all ages got amazing hands on experiences with workshops ranging in difficulty from making an art bot (for kids ages 2-10 with a parent, 10+ without) to making an electronic guitar or game controller (for kids ages 8+, 10+ respectively). Many more workshops and activities kept students engaged for the whole afternoon.

The event lasted for six hours and included presentations for ISB’s upcoming middle school drama, student projects in technology, space, robotics, design, music, visual arts, physics, photography, radio, film, and inventions.  Professional displays were primarily showcasing Makers from Beijing Maker Space, Creatica, CAFA, and Tianjin Art Academy. Tsinghua Unviersity gave virtual reality demos while ISB held their own 3D printing display.

Don’t miss another great event like this! Follow beijingkids on WeChat to stay up to date on what’s going on for families around the city, or check back on our website every Monday evening for the event roundup of what’s going on in the city. Don’t forget our event section!

Photo: Courtesy of ISB

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