Our Mission

Robotics is a core engineering field that extends into many different applications, such as medicine, psychology, social sciences, arts, ethics and many others. However, many young people are not aware of this exciting interdisciplinary STEM context, and thus many are deterred from pursuing careers in robotics due to these misconceptions. This project aims to change this perception and therefore inspire a more diverse and inclusive community of roboticists. We will train and facilitate professional engineers from industry working in robotics to create modular STEM outreach ‘LaunchBoxes’, reflecting their backgrounds, experiences and passions and therefore showing the existing diversity within robotics and roboticists. With the help of our partner RS Grass Roots, we will populate these boxes with building blocks to facilitate the creation of a wide range of robotics systems which will fuelexciting hands-on workshops with real-world relevance for young people aged 13-17 across the UK (Bristol, Edinburgh, Manchester, London, Cardiff and online). This project will train more than 30 engineers in outreach, with a particular focus on Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI), and directly engage and inform 300+ young people about the multi-disciplinarity of robotics. In addition, we will translate the ‘LaunchBoxes’ and corresponding support materials into an open-source library for other engineers and educators to build scalable workshops with the aim to have a lasting impact in the UK and beyond.