Skip to content
Computing Sciences

Category: Research

A Summer Journey at AI Hub: From Brain Rides to Co-Design Workshops

This summer, Veronika and Mina had the incredible opportunity to work as research assistants the Tampere University’s AI Hub, where innovation and creativity thrive. We embarked on a unique journey, inventing what we called "Brain Rides" - a novel approach to brainstorming that involved holding meetings while riding bikes or scooters. This unconventional method not only invigorated our minds but also paved the way for a wealth of fresh, innovative ideas. This method helped us stay fresh when the energy levels fell down.

”Every course should be like this” – summer school in Data-Enabled Design in collaboration with Särkänniemi offered unique learning opportunities (and fun rides)

Students in Human-Technology Interaction at Tampere University had a chance to dive deep into a new design methodology called Data-Enabled Design while enjoying the fun atmosphere at Särkänniemi amusement park. A thrilling start for the new semester was made possible in the summer school co-organized by Tampere University and Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Stakeholders at Särkänniemi, including their CEO Miikka Seppälä, provided exciting practical challenges and future visions for students to work on. On Friday 25th of August, the course had its grande finale when students presented their ideas to Särkänniemi staff at the planetarium.

Designing and Evaluating Posture Recognition Algorithm on Temi Robot in Reaktor's Office: A Pilot Study with AI Hub Tampere

If office employees sit for long hours at a desk or in front of their computer, they are likely to strain their muscles and cause tension in their neck, shoulders, and back. If this persists for a long period, health issues, including neck and back pain, headaches, muscle pain, etc., can develop. By fixing their posture and adopting ergonomic practices, as well as having active breaks, office employees can reduce the risk of injury and discomfort and improve their overall health and well-being.

Co-Learning about Psychology in Human-Robot Interaction – University Students, Highschool Students and Robots Learning Together

It was our pleasure to have around 30 high school students visiting us in Robostudio co-learning workshop on 5.4.2023. Co-learning, in our case, is a unique learning concept, where our university students learn together with some other learner group. The activity takes place in robotic learning stations, and every visitor have a chance to visit several stations. Robots are for sure always somehow involved in the activity.

A Real Head Turner: Exploring the Campus with The Boston Dynamics Spot Robot Dog

Technology never fails to amaze us with its advancements, making our lives a little more comfortable in the process. It might be an exceedingly difficult question to answer whether technology has adapted to human needs or humans have adapted to technological solutions as a part and parcel of their lives. The world of today might as well have been a killer science fiction story from 50 years ago. Something we have seen many times in science fiction movies suddenly jumps right in front of us. Such an event recently took place in Robostudio at Tampere University. And it's safe to say that this event felt as close as it gets to a scary robot uprising, but somehow in a positive manner!

Learning how to co-learn: Student-children interaction with robots

In May 2022 we piloted something novel in Robostudio. A voluntary group of Human-Technology Interaction students got a chance to try out co-learning and facilitation of younger pupils (4th and 6th grade) on different kinds of learning tasks related to social robots. The tasks took place on the learning stations with Pepper, Nao and Clicbot, and in addition we had a longer task about storytelling with Alphamini. The tasks varied a lot when it comes to their content and the interaction needed between the students and pupils. No one can state that the task was too easy, so we raise a hat for these brave students who took this challenge, and we warmly thank the participating pupils who came to Robostudio and gave this chance and challenge for us 😊 From the teacher’s perspective the workshops were smooth and everybody seemed to handle their tasks successfully, and also the pupils seemed to enjoy the workshop, interaction and the robotic tasks. Everybody was able to learn a lot, but not necessarily the same things. Please read the story to find out how it went from the students’ perspective and what they learned!

Welcome to Robostudio!

We have opened a brand new Robostudio in TAU Hervanta campus. Robostudio is a multidisciplinary co-learning space to work with lovely social robots. It is dedicated for educational purposes and the activity is strongly connected to research as well. User Experience in Robotics course runs in this space, as well as social robotics-related thesis projects. We are also running other kinds of co-learning events and workshops where we invite for example school pupils to learn with us.