Robotics for educational purposes

By: Jindriska Mayorga

Teachers and students from Bluefields, New Guinea, Rosita and Siuna, from the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast (URACCAN), were certified in educational robotics, after an intense week-long workshop taught by experts at the La Minas campus.

The Master's Degree Víctor Zúñiga, Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at URACCAN, explained that the idea is to promote robotics for educational purposes, but also with the idea of being able to design projects that will facilitate needs in the areas of health and productivity education.

Among the future impacts from certification in Robotics Lab TETRIX at URACCAN, it means the preparation to participate for the first time in the Robotics Olympics at the higher education level, to be carried out next September.

URACCAN, promotes educational robotics as a fundamental axis for developing the skills of the 21st century in children and young people, the basis of the development of the Caribbean Coast and the country, "what we want is to contribute to reducing the gaps we have in the region, directly impacting the education sector and tilting children and young people to engineering careers for the personal and family well-being of themselves and also for the well-being required by the Caribbean Coast and Nicaragua," says Zúñiga.

The workshop was given within the framework of the agreement between this institution of higher education with Comtech and the private company DSC of Costa Rica, who have been working with URACCAN since 2018.

Elizabeth Chavez, an engineer at Comtech said this strengthens academic pensum, as well as raising students' potential, skills, their levels of competence in terms of the proposals they may submit in the field of industry.

He added that they are calling on students of engineering careers to make concrete proposals at the 2020 National Robotics Olympics to be held on September 07 in Managua.

Strengthened

Faruc Emilio Chavarría Evans, a fourth-year student in the engineering career in systems, said that the workshop allowed him to strengthen his knowledge, "I learned a new programming language, the robotic and mechanical functions that we can exercise in different prototypes to implement for better development, since through them we can provide solutions to different social spheres, in addition this certification allows me to share the knowledge with my colleagues to grow and make a greater community".

Likewise Kristel Nohemy Molina Herrera, a student of the engineering career in systems said "in these five days I experienced a lot, this allows me to develop more in my career, besides I learned to work in articulation since the exercises we performed were challenges that we managed to do together".

"We run a production line that can help micro-enterprises, which is in favor of the development of the region," he said.

It is important to mention that the young students thanked the University for this certification, "I thank the university for giving me the opportunity to take this course in robotics, I intend to put the knowledge into practice and share with my classmates the knowledge and in the future create machines in a company," said student Henry Daniel Díaz Ochoa.

Bluefields educational technology coordinator Yader Fajardo said he was excited about this new way of programming much closer to what is snout (robot), "as teachers we are gives us the perspective of how to engage our students and give them solutions that can be applied in the different fields and themes of everyday life."

Similarly, Elkis Ortega Carrasco, coordinator of educational technology at the Las Minas Campus, said that URACCAN started with the theme of robotics two years ago, "We were working with a technology that was for children and adolescents but this time we scaled to another level of robotics that is for university students of adulthood and with this technology our students will be able to participate in national competitions , they will be able to bring some teams that may represent the university," he said.