DAVIE, Fla. – We know how important – even difficult – it is to keep up with tech as things get more advanced and change the way we live.
That’s especially true when it comes to robots, as we’ve already seen them do things like delivering food, providing security, and even providing forms of therapy.
In today’s Technically Speaking report, Local 10′s Gio Insignares explains how a local institution is helping people keep pace by providing real world experience in robotics and artificial intelligence.
The Alan B. Levan NSU Broward Center of Innovation is 54,000-square-feet of space dubbed “the world’s first theme park for entrepreneurs.”
“This is truly emerging technology. This is the future here now,” said John Wensveen, Chief Innovation Officer of NSU and the executive director of the Levan Center.
Wensveen hopes that moniker sticks and represents an ecosystem built around innovation, technology and entrepreneurship.
“Part of that was to bring in robotics and robots are the future. It’s going to transform the way that humans live, and work and play,” he said.
That transformation comes with some help from RobotLAB – a robotics company focused on helping schools and businesses learn about and integrate robots into their work.
Since the Levan Center’s opening in April of 2022, and the following partnership with RobotLAB in September of that year, this learning space has grown significantly.
Coding and programming are among the skills taught there as is showing how robots are going to be used in the future.
A variety of hands-on stations are scattered across the lab, meant to provide real-world experience, including mock setups and a variety of robots that can mimic scenarios beyond typical use.
“These are miniature simulated environments that we can create that can be applied in real life applications. And our goal here is to truly identify what kind of global trends and challenges exist out there so that we can come up with strategies based on the opportunities that we’re finding to apply robotics in those environments,” Wensveen said.
The job, according to Wensveen, is to build a toolbox and robots are one piece of that toolbox.
From there, it’s up to someone to figure out how to use it within their own environment.
“We have one rule here, and the rule is that there are no rules. And the moment that you put parameters around how you do, how you think, then you’re not innovative,” Wensveen said. “It allows everybody from students to entrepreneurs, to industry, government partners, to truly play in this big sandbox and see what works and what doesn’t, so that when we do go to the real world, it will be functional.”
Dante Midei is an example of a student who is getting the opportunity to benefit directly from this Levan Center-RobotLAB partnership, through an internship.
He’s a coder on the robotics team at NSU University School.
“This place -- it’s got robots that I’ve never seen before. These are robots that are very cool, and it’s very difficult to get your hands on. The center allows you to touch base with these robots that you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise,” Midei said.
Some of Midei’s early work involved coding robots to play soccer.
The only limit in this field, he says, is your imagination and physics.
“It’s just so interesting to be able to get to see, like, oh, it wasn’t something before. Now it is. We were going from a shell of a walking robot to a fully functioning soccer program. Being able to say, this is where we started, and this is where we are announcing that progression over time,” Midei said.
This relationship between the Levan Center and RobotLAB is something the CEO and founder of the company, Elad Inbar, says is incredibly rewarding.
It’s all part of a mission toward making robots and making this technology accessible, inclusive and engaging.
“This is the future,” Inbar said. “And it’s important to prepare these kids that will graduate in the 2030s -- kids that are in middle school and high school today.”
“We know the world will be different at that point, so get them all that training that we can provide them so they will be valuable in the workplace and everything when they graduate,” he added.
There’s an insistence on that repeated phrase -- the future.
It’s happening right now and this collaborative effort is seen by all as worth it.
“Coding is the future. Robots are the future, and when you learn it, you’re becoming part of that future,” Midei said. “I think it’s very important for people to learn, at least to some degree, so that they can be part of the next generation of robots.”
RobotLAB hopes to “RobotLAB teams” in every major metro area, creating a network of support across schools, universities and businesses.
They say there’s already one team in Fort Lauderdale.
As for the Levan Center, they say the goal is create more education and awareness about their work and help bring entrepreneurs across South Florida together.