Event on the future of medicine and school atUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma

28 January 2021 - Learn the basics of robotics from the very first years of school to understand its great potential and make it an increasingly widespread subject of study. The role of robotics in training and research provided food for thought at the event "Beyond Robotics", held at the Campus BioDMedico University of Rome. We talked about the developments of this discipline which, on the education front, overturns the traditional way of learning to promote the problem based learning. Since the early years of the educational path, therefore, robotics is becoming a tool that sets as a starting point a contingent situation to be faced around which to build resolution tools.

Furthermore, on the medical research side, there was talk of technologies that assist in rehabilitation, although under the control of the physiotherapist, smart devices that help in the diagnosis of certain pathologies. What in the past was a dream or project is now reality: the Dean of the Departmental Faculty of Medicine and Surgery ofUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, the professor. Vincenzo Di Lazzaro, gave a lectio magistralis on the medicine of the future, speaking in particular of the innovations introduced with robotic hands, neuroprostheses, wearable robots and rehabilitation robots. “People affected by neurodegenerative diseases can partially regain control of their motor faculties thanks to the application of robotics to medicine, thanks to the increasingly close collaboration between the various professionals, from the neurologist to the engineer, up to the involvement of the physiatrist. In our University Hospital, patients who make themselves available to experimental protocols also become pioneers of science" - he pointed out Di Lazzaro, which with its research team is working a lot on robotic limbs and robots for rehabilitation, thanks also to the synergy between the Campus Bio-Medico University and institutional realities such as Inail and ANIA.

In addition, first and second grade elementary and secondary school students were awarded. The award, established a few years ago in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Rovereto Civic Museum Foundation, aims to enhance the best scientific projects presented during the FIRST® LEGO® League Italia, in the presence of authorities and experts in education and research. The FIRST® LEGO® League is a global science and robotics challenge between teams of kids, on highly topical issues, such as the environment, assistance to the elderly and disabled, climate change, sustainability, which takes place in over 100 countries in the world, in Italy by the Fondazione Museo Civico di Rovereto, with national sponsor Dolomiti Energia and technical sponsor Campus Store. The three teams that presented the best scientific project of the 2020-2021 edition and the three best out of the many selected ones of the 2019-2020 edition, postponed due to the Covid emergency, were awarded. The teams are awarded a prize offered by the technical sponsors CASIO and Campus Store. Winners 2019/2020, the boys and girls of the MiccoRoboSenior extracurricular team of Pistoia (which also collects the third prize for 2020/2021), MyColLego of the Bosco Chiesanuova Institute of Roverè Veronese, and Citysprouts of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Trezzano Rosa (Milan). For 2020/2021, the mixed extracurricular teams Allegribot of Luisago (Como) and Fore de Capu of Lecce were awarded.

An award was also given to the engineering undergraduates and recent graduates, winners of the Digital Sustainability Bootcamp 2021. The winning team consisted of Elena Tomas Bort, former researcher at Queen Mary University of London, Davide Salvatore Coniglio, from the University of Bath, and Riccardo Matteoli, an Engineering graduate from the Excellence Pathway of theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma. Thanks to the different study paths of the three members, the team with transversal skills, from economics to engineering, proposed a winning solution “Smart packaging and reuse from production to consumption” to the case study provided by DXC TECHNOLOGY.