21/07/2010 - Events
Highly attended our educational laboratories at ESOF 2010
Reading time: 2 minutesDuring ESOF 2010 In Turin, Italy, more than 75.000 people attended all the workshops, conferences, exhibitions held during the Science-in-the-City Programme. The laboratories organized in the Castello Square, by the School of Robotics were a full house every day.. and the night too!
Great success for the robotics laboratories organized by the School of robotics and the schoolnet "Porte aperte alla robotica" (Open Doors to Robotics) and "Roberta in Piemonte" (Roberta, girls discover robots, Piedmont network).
During the laboratories, "Robotics for everyone" we discussed with participants about the main future robotics application. The School of robotics' staff introduced people to robotics using many different robots: a little ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) to underline the importance of oceans' monitoring; a dog-robot and a humanoid to explain the balance and to experiment a robot' walk; an explorer robot was used to discuss about ultrasonic sensor, and so on. ESOF was an important European event focussing on Science; in the frame of the "Science in the city Programme", where the School of robotics had its stall - we were the only ones talking about robotics.
During the 3-days activities our staff met thousand of people, and now we are commited to a follow-up, keeping in touch with all these people coming from many European Countries. We enjoyed the collaboration with the schoolnet of "Porte aperte alla robotica" (Open doors to robotics) coordinated by prof. Enzo Marvaso (IPSIA Galilei, Turin). This project is a new important step to spread the use of robotics in Italian school. Thanks to the Turin's Chamber of Commerce five industrial robotics arms by COMAU will be donated to five different schools.
During the 3 days we have create a novelty fashion: the robo-wedding! During the 3 days a lot of happy couples went in Piazza Castello for their photos book, and they decided to use our robot as mascotte, for a picture. In this link you can see the album Scenes from a robo-marriage!
To remember our activities in ESOF, here a video:
Moreover to see all our photos from ESOF 2010: click here!
And, some figures about ESOF 2010's global attendance. Over 4,000 participants in the programmes at Lingotto, 75,000 people in the heart of the city for the Science in the City events.
Over 4,300 participants were registered in the 7 days of the event, with more than 400 accredited journalists from all around the world and an estimated influx of 75,000 visitors involved in the extraordinary collective spectacular show of Science in the City which enlivened the city's nights during ESOF.
"Over 4,000 participants at the congress, almost 60% of whom aged under 35 from 82 countries, 780 speakers and exhibitors (34% of them women), 5 Nobel laureates, over 400 journalists from Japan to China, from Australia to Europe", Enrico Predazzi, President of ESOF2010 summarises the Italian edition that closed on 7 July at Lingotto Turin. Two Ministers of Science and Technology from European countries, several Members of the European Parlament and several top official and Directors from European Commission and UNESCO.1800 copies of the welcome address of President Napolitano distributed among the participants at the Lingotto venue.
"The scientific programme was of an outstanding level, higher than in any previous edition. The scientific part was of the greatest quality: we had over one thousand proposed speakers, and of these we selected 400 amongst the best from all around the world. The Career Programme was also a great success, visited by more than 2,000 young researchers, many of whom had a "Pizza with the Prof", mentioned even in the splendid and stirring opening video of President Napolitano.For the first time, there was a massive presence of young researchers and important space for companies. The result is more than positive. We are tired but very satisfied."
"Anyone who had the chance to wander around the city will have felt the public's participation and to breathe in the passion for science in the streets and squares" noted Pino Zappalà, Director of ESOF2010. The Science in the City programme was appreciated not only by the general public but also by the scientists and experts who came to Turin for the scientific programme. Masters of a subject manage to explain it in simple terms and make it understood by everyone. This was the key to the success of Science in the City, that also revealed some unexpected and amusing aspects of science and scientists. The Nobel prize winner Peter Agre, engaged in the fight against malaria, sang and played the vuvuzela in Piazza San Carlo, while another Nobel prize winner, Harold Kroto, the discoverer of fullerenes, explained why ltaly, France and England were knocked out of the World Cup: a "scientific" question that concerns the balls used and their structure, proof that researchers are normal people who do extraordinary work for all of us.
ESOF 2010 official website
IPSIA Galilei official website - coordinator of the schoolnetwork "Porte aperte alla robotica"
MCE official website - coordinator of the robotics project "Roberta in Piedmont"
Le foto migliori di ESOF su Flickr
Photo gallery
