Caguas – On a table in the cinema-theater Caribbean Creole Center for Science and Technology (C3Tec), a small dog-shaped robot encourages the curiosity of almost a hundred students. The children laugh and scream excitedly when they see that the metallic animal barks, runs, moves its tail and even does push-ups or push-ups.
“Unlike a natural dog, this robot does exercises. This shows us that robots are going to have greater capabilities for certain actions,” he explained. Alexander Casañasprofessor of Computer Science at the Ana G. Méndez University, during his talk on robotics and artificial intelligence. “For example, we cannot lift heavy things because our body has limits. But, Later, there will be a robot that can help them lift heavy objects”.
The talk was one of the activities that took place at C3Tec on Friday, during the celebration of the International Day of Science Centers and Museums. This is an annual event in which these institutions demonstrate the role they play in raising awareness among the population about issues such as sustainable development, climate change, health, energy, waste, water scarcity and gender equality, according to information from the Association of Science and Technology Centers.
About 400 people attended the activity, mostly students between the ages of 8 and 16, reported Tasha Endaraexecutive director of the institution. The event included different exhibitions, including prosthetics made with 3D printers, video games adapted for players with functional diversity, demonstrations of robotics and electrical engineering, as well as replicas – made with 3D printers – of production and packaging lines for pharmaceutical products.
“We want to activate this vein of research and satisfy the curiosity of our children and young people about the different branches of science”Endara explained. He added that the event also sought to present professions and trades related to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) subjects.
“We are a complement to the classroom and a support for teachers,” he said of C3Tec, which has several laboratories and a permanent exhibition with more than 30 stations on science and technology.
Robotics and artificial intelligence
In the cinema-theater, Professor Casañas answered questions from the students about the robot dog, such as the cost –about $300–, how long it took to build it –20 hours–, what type of computer it has –Raspberry Pi–, how much memory it has –8 gigabytes– and how it was programmed –with the Python programming language–.
Casañas urged students of all ages to ask questions and develop their intellectual curiosity and critical analysis.
“Unlike previous generations, they are going to be in a world where artificial intelligence is going to be the norm in their lives, just as happened before with the internet and smartphones,” he stated, in an aside with this newspaper. “The dangerous thing about artificial intelligence is that humans become overconfident and take for granted everything that artificial intelligence does. Therefore, A skill that education must reinforce is critical analysiswhich is essential to discern, in all this volume of information that exists, the truth and the falsehood.”
The professor also explained the difference between robotics and artificial intelligence. “A robot, without artificial intelligence, is taught how to react to an environment, and it will continue repeating that action,” Casañas said. “Artificial intelligence analyzes data models and, with that data that it was taught, it begins to make decisions, which means it can perform other tasks. It is more versatile.”
For example, while a robot can move boxes from one place to another, the artificial intelligence is asked to write an essay on a specific topic and the system decides what words to use. “Artificial intelligence has already been integrated with robotics. Now we have robots that adapt to the environment and make decisions”Casañas highlighted.
The teacher emphasized to the students the importance of using these technological advances for the common good. “With these systems, you can create innovation, which is very different from just consuming artificial intelligence. It must be used responsibly,” he insisted.