Russian students at the final of the Imagine Cup in Warsaw are fighting for the honor of the country!

I think many readers of Habr are aware of the competition Imagine Cup - an international student technology competition organized annually by Microsoft. July 3-10, the international final of this competition is held in Warsaw , which is attended by two teams from Russia: the NLO team from SUSU (Chelyabinsk) represents the country in the competition of software projects, and the team from MGPU participates in the contest of embedded systems with the Robonian tutor. Both of these projects won the Russian finals , becoming the best among many dozens of other student projects from all over Russia.



So far, the final has been very successful for the Robonian team - last night it was announced that she was among the six super-finalists of the competition . Now the guys will have to compete for prizes: the final performance will be tomorrow, July 7, in front of all participants of the Imagine Cup at the Warsaw Opera, from 15:00 to 23:30 Moscow time - it is at this time that our team should wish good luck! The NLO team, unfortunately, did not make it to the super-final, and its members were able to spend today quietly, seeing the sights.
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We will know the final results of the competitions only on Thursday, July 8, as part of the awards ceremony and the World Festival. If you want to be the first to find out who will be the winner of the Imagine Cup - watch the online broadcast of the festival , which will begin on the website http://www.imaginecup.com July 8 at 20:00 Moscow time. If there is no possibility to watch the broadcast - follow the twitter , and also see the travel video notes of Konstantin Kichinsky . Of course, as soon as we find out the results ourselves, we will try to report them to the habrasoobshchestvo as soon as possible (by adding to this record).

In conclusion, a few words about what the guys did (although this is understandable from the name of the project). They constructed a semi-autonomous robot educator who can be used to teach children in kindergarten and elementary school. A nanny can conduct lessons, following a given scenario, organize contests and physical training, can be used for remote tele-presence and monitoring children. As the experimental use of the robonian in one of the kindergartens of Moscow has shown, children listen with interest to the robot and follow its instructions. The lesson, conducted by robonies, is more interactive and can be conducted in small groups, he teaches children to "human" interaction even in the absence of a tutor. And finally, the presence of such a “technological innovation” in the classroom makes it possible to interest and involve even the most passive children in the educational process.

Technically, the roboticon operates on the basis of the eBox-2300 controller running Windows Embedded. It is associated with two motion controllers that control stepper motors, which in total give 10 degrees of freedom. A webcam and a microphone allow monitoring the environment, other sensors will be added after the competition (let's not forget that project prototypes are submitted for the competition).

Would you like your children to be raised by robots? Share with us (as well as with the authors of the project - I’m sure they’ll come back to the discussion with interest!) With your thoughts! If you have questions - ask, but be indulgent, if you do not immediately receive an answer - the guys are in a difficult period. And if you want to wish the guys good luck in the performance - I am sure that this support will not remain useless, and will contribute to the success of Russia at the Imagine Cup!