Robotelier kids & Ditartis

Starting from October 5th until December 15th, 2023, at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the workshop activities referred to hereinafter as Module I activities, were carried out with children aged between 5 and 13 years old. The children were divided into age groups, so that those who could write and read formed the large group, while the others formed the small group. Registration was done through a registration link, which was distributed to 3 randomly selected primary education institutions in Cluj, from which the first 30 registered children were selected.

The purpose of these meetings for Module I was primarily to familiarize children with the university environment. They learned about electrical components and equipment such as sensors, development kits with microcontrollers, motors, buttons, as well as accessories such as breadboards, LEDs, connecting cables, and others. Children had access to information on how these components function, what applications they are used for, and how they connect to each other by performing simple experimental setups understandable to them.

For Module I, 10 weekly meetings were proposed, every Friday starting at 6:00 PM, held in room 5 of the University building located at 2 Observatorului Street.

Todlers  had challenges to solve as a team. Additionally, there were small competitions between teams, and those who won had the opportunity to receive tasks of their choice. The atmosphere was very dynamic, and the children worked with great enthusiasm.

Children who understood writing, had the challenge to modify the source code of the microcontroller and exploit countless possibilities using Arduino.

The feedback from parents and especially from the children was unanimously very positive because they learned many practical things, and starting from the knowledge acquired in this workshop, they can continue with applications at home, having multiple opportunities to develop robots or electrical systems. The Ditartis@UTCN team will continue with Module II because all children re-enrolled, and there are requests to accept other children into this working team.