On November 14th, as part of the Science4All initiative promoted by the University of Padova, the IAS-Lab team ran two laboratory sessions for lower secondary school students at the Department of Information Engineering. The sessions were led by Profs. Emanuele Menegatti and Michele Moro, Dott. Daniel Fusaro and myself.
The question we started from: can a robot learn to recognise colours it has never seen before? Through a hands-on exploration of machine learning basics, students discovered how AI techniques can be used to teach robots to recognise colours and navigate their environment, while also seeing how robotics can be a concrete tool to support the learning of curricular subjects such as science, mathematics, geography and Italian.
What made the day particularly rewarding was seeing every student successfully complete all the planned activities and get their robot working. A reminder that when the task is meaningful and the approach is hands-on, engagement follows naturally.
