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Nao STEM Available for U.S. High Schools
Nao STEM, Aldebaran's humanoid robot for STEM education, is now available for use in community colleges and high schools in the United States.
The 22-inch-tall robot can see, hear, speak, move, walk, dance, play soccer, recognize faces and objects, understand what is said to him, localize sound, and speak seven languages, and is currently being used in more than 350 schools and universities to teach classes including math, robotics, and computer sciences.
According to information released by the company, "From diverse fields including studies on motor skills, balance, grasping of objects or research on vision, language and man robot interaction, Nao is the leading robotics platform used today. New applications for Nao are constantly being discovered in areas beyond robotics including treating children with autism."
"One of the things that amazes me most is the draw that Nao has for students. It draws women and minorities that have never shown interest in programming or robotics to the table. Students are asking teachers to teach them math as opposed to just having it forced on them by the teacher”, says Mike Beiter, chair of the Computer Systems Department at Central Tech High School in Erie, PA. “Not only do students learn a wide variety of programming, robotics, and math skills, but they also learn valuable social skills. We have attracted students from the medical major as well as student(s) interested in pursuing education to work with the robot. The Special Education department has been amazed at the results we have achieved with students in a wide variety of areas."
Nao is programmable in Python and C++, and ships with a software development kit.
More information is available at naostem.com.
About the Author
Joshua Bolkan is contributing editor for Campus Technology, THE Journal and STEAM Universe. He can be reached at jbolkan@gmail.com.