Among others, the institutions  of higher education SUPSI, EPFL and ETH are all involved in the digitalswitzerland nextgeneration summer camps, providing a guarantee of quality and solid science. A concerted effort is being made to include girls and boys in equal numbers. This week’s blog focuses on the EPFL robotics camp, one of many camps that the institution provides for young people.

How to build and code robots for Girls and Boys
(content provided by Farnaz Moser, EPFL)

The goal of this 5-day camp for the children aged 11 to 13 is to introduce young girls and boys to coding and robotics and arouse their interest for the fields of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and engineering. This camp is a part of a wide programme developed at EPFL to get youngsters aged 7 to 16 interested in science and technology and inspire them to go further in these fields. You can see more here.

EPFL Summer camps to acquire skills in the field of ICT

During this camp, the participants learn to design, build, and programme robots to carry out their projects. Participants will use the Lego Mindstorms educational platform to build and programme robots, which will then move in mazes, avoid collisions, dance, play music and perform some of the missions of the FIRST LEGO League competition (see http://www.firstlegoleague.org/).

Participants acquire different skills in the areas of design, coding, problem solving, collaborative work, and presentation of results. The appropriate pedagogical approach is chosen so that girls and boys are equally encouraged and inspired, are fascinated and have fun. At the end of the week, they present their projects to their parents during a ceremony where they also receive their EPFL participation certificate.

Dates and registration

The camp will take place two times this year, in French, on the EPFL campus from 13 to 17 August 2018 and 15 to 19 October 2018. We aim to have an equal number of boys and girls attending. For more information and to sign up: Mon robot est malin

You can also see a short Video of a previous camp.

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