Before a school-going learner can aspire to a particular career and select an appropriate tertiary education path he or she needs to know that such a career exists. Youngsters of today become aware of different careers through their experiences in school, in the world and through their exposure to the media – in particular television and films. They know of careers such as doctor, accountant, graphic artist, Web developer and software programmer, but I wonder how may learners in South Africa know that the field of instrumentation and control even exists, or that there are career opportunities in robotics, mechatronics and fluid control?
This is not a problem that is uniquely South African, so perhaps we can learn something from the way it is addressed in other countries.
RoboCup is an international research and education initiative to promote AI, robotics, and related fields of study. The project uses competitive football games as a central topic of research, aiming at innovations to be applied for socially significant problems and industries. The ultimate goal of the RoboCup project is to develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world champion soccer team in soccer by 2050.
RoboCupJunior provides youngsters with an exciting introduction to the field of robotics, a new way to develop technical abilities through hands-on experience with electronics, hardware and software, and a highly motivating opportunity to learn about teamwork while sharing technology with friends.
In the USA organisations like FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) have been formed to stimulate an interest in and awareness of technical careers. The vision of FIRST, as set out by founder Dean Karmen, is “To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes.”
Founded in 1989, FIRST has touched the lives of many people, including those of more than 156 000 students from age 6 to high school leavers. But do programmes like this have the desired effect?
Brandeis University undertook a retrospective study which compared FIRST participants with non-FIRST students with similar backgrounds and academic experiences, including math and science and found inter alia that FIRST students were:
* More than three times as likely to major specifically in engineering.
* Roughly 10 times as likely to have had an apprenticeship, internship, or co-op job in their freshman year.
* Significantly more likely to expect to achieve a post graduate degree.
* More than twice as likely to expect to pursue a career in science and technology.
* Nearly four times as likely to expect to pursue a career specifically in engineering.
While on the surface the activities of these organisations may look like kids’ play, they are taken very seriously by participants and sponsors alike. In January of this year BAE systems announced that it was increasing its contribution to FIRST to more than US$1m annually through donations of money, resources and employee volunteering.
Recently a group of South African engineers and academics got together and formed a RoboCup 2010 South Africa Bid Committee to bid for holding the 2010 RoboCup event in South Africa. One of the motives for making this bid is that it provides an opportunity to inspire scholars at primary school level to get involved in First Lego League and then to progress to RoboCupJunior. This exposure helps to foster a belief in the importance of maths and science in their futures.
We will not know the outcome of our bid process for some months, but whether we are successful or not it would be wonderful to see the introduction of programmes like RoboCupJunior, FIRST and First Lego League inspiring our next generation of instrumentation and control and automation engineers.
Andrew Ashton
Features editor: SA Instrumentation & Control
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