Robotics & AI blog

Logo of the blog

I recently came across a fairly new blog, Robotics & AI, while I was looking for interesting articles to use with my engineering students this semester. The article that had caught my eye was "Five Trends in Robotics to Watch This Year," since I like to use articles in class that have information about new innovations in my students' engineering fields.

Both robotics and artificial intelligence are relevant to many engineering fields, so I was particularly interested in the innovations and trends that would be focused on in this article and the other articles that were on this site.

Link to the blog: http://www.roboticsandai.com/

But, since the blog itself was new to me, I looked through other topics that have been posted. These include:

• The 'To Be or Not to Be' Question (referring to artificial intelligence - but I love the reference to Hamlet!)
• Five Trends in Robotics to Watch This Year
• Virtual Reality is Finally Here
• Home is Where the Robot Is
• Holy Moley, Your Chef is a Robot
• etc.

The information about the blog was also interesting. From About this blog:

"This blog is my attempt not only to report on the latest developments in the field, but also to provide a collaborative platform where enthusiasts can share their knowledge. Cutting through all the negative hype that surrounds the subject, this blog seeks to make a scientific enquiry into the latest developments in Robotics & AI to throw light on the positive solutions it offers for the future."

I liked the idea of focusing on "positive solutions ... for the future," since it reflects the kinds of discussions I like to encourage in my classroom. After all, our students are the future, and they will be the ones who develop such positive solutions.

The blogger, a "robotics and AI enthusiast" writes (About me):

"To the hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts like me, Robotics & AI spell not only the shape of things to come, but are also an exciting obsession that occupy cult status in our minds."

I think this will resonate with our students -- who are also enthusiasts of the latest technology and who also have a positive attitude about the future of such technology.

The focus of this site is so relevant - and interesting - that I have included a link to it on my blog as a Relevant link (at the right of the posts).

The first article I've used from this blog, as mentioned above, is "Five Trends in Robotics to Watch This Year."

http://www.roboticsandai.com/2016/01/five-trends-in-robotics-to-watch-this-year/

It has provided not only interesting discussion with my students, but also relevant language work for students to use when writing about an innovation or about their personal viewpoint of what they've read. For example:

• expressions of opinion (without stating "I think")
• use of concession and rebuttal
• ways of referring to information used or cited
• ways of referring to the future (information, trends, etc.)
• use of questions; rhetorical questions

Expressions of opinion:

• (Journalist Will Knight) produced an excellent article
• an ambitious plan to ...
• this will see drones really take off this year
• and that's just the tip of the iceberg
• This doesn't come as a surprise as ...
• probably as personal as it can get
• This we found to be most exciting
• 2016 certainly looks like a year which will see quantum leaps in ...

Use of concession and rebuttal:

• It's true that ... , but we wonder ...
• While it may not mean that ... , Knight predicts that we should expect ...
• While the skies may not be taken over by ... , it is only a matter of time before ...
• ... while personal robots will become more prominent, it will be difficult to design robots that...

Ways of referring to information used or cited:

•  ... produced an excellent article for the MIT Technical Review focusing on ...
• an analysis of his findings
• what we think of the trends
• (China) is well known for ...
• What is not as well known is that ...
• the government has committed to ...
• (Foxconn), who amongst other products, manufacture ...
• this move to introduce ...
• (Jeff Bozos) has long dreamt of ...
• (The US Federal Aviation Administration) has recently released new regulations for ...
• Knight predicts that ...
• Knight reports that ...
• One approach uses ...
• Some companies are even attempting to ...

Ways of referring to the future (information, trends, etc.):

• (Foxconn) plans to install ...
• we wonder what this will do to ...
• if such a robotic work force were to replace human workers ...
• this will see drones really take off this year
• our skies will be taken over by ...
• Knight predicts that we should expect ...
• it is only a matter of time before ...
• expected to debut this year
• it will be difficult to design robots that ...
• Robots will learn in ways that were not possible in the past.
• they will now be trained using deep learning
• This is set to accelerate the learning process
• We will endeavour to keep bringing you the latest updates

Use of questions; rhetorical questions:

• we wonder what this will do to the country's economy
• Is the price worth it, we wonder?
• isn't expecting machines to possess social skills a but unrealistic ... and err unnecessary really?

What is also particularly interesting about the articles on this blog is that they focus on the future -- the future impact of new technologies (both positive and negative) -- which is something that is important for our students to think about, since they are the ones who will be creating the technologies of the future. As it says in the logo of the blog: Let's talk about the future!