Teaching & Workshops
Below is a selected list of teaching activities and workshops. The complete list is available here.
Image by Umairah Murtaza
Workshop: Exploring Humanoids (2022)
This half day workshop aimed to introduce children aged between 9 and 10 years old to the technological components underlying humanoid robots. Children were programmed LEDs and servo motors using Arduino. This was run in collaboration with the International School of Genova.
Workshop: Hacking Hardware (2020)
The Hacking Hardware workshops was a one-day workshop facilitated as part of the 5 day Flash program run by She Codes which inspires to teach women technical skills. Women were taught to program development boards using Micropython and Micro:Bit.
Workshop: Automating Care with Arduino (2018)
This half day workshop taught young adults aged between 12 and 26 to build a system that would illuminate LEDs if a plant needed to be watered. Participants were also introduced to research using robotics to semi-automate the care of aged persons and individuals with autism, and encouraged to think about the ethical implications of these systems. This workshop was facilitated as part of the KickstART Youth Festival.
Using Arduino, the moisture content in the plant was detected based on how easily electricity flows between the two points on the sensor. The Interactive Development Environment (IDE) was used to upload the code to trigger different LEDs to illuminate based on defined moisture thresholds. When the plant has too much water the LEDs blink green, when the plant has an average level of water the LEDs blink yellow, and when it needs more water the LEDs blink red (see video below).
Teaching: Social Robotics. Aesthetic Crossovers between Art and Science (2018)
The Social Robotics lecture and tutorial introduced students to the field of Social Robotics from scientific, ethical and design perspectives. It was facilitated as part of the undergraduate unit, Aesthetic Crossovers between Art and Science at the University of Western Australia. The unit teaches students the techniques and technologies of the sciences to explore the methodological and ideological crossovers between art and science.