Abstract
Robot Day is a fast-growing, volunteer-led celebration of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) that explores all things robotic and is aimed at everyone from toddlers to academics. The inaugural Robot Day Coventry on 09 March 2019 attracted over 5500 visitors and the venue, Coventry Transport Museum, doubled its all-time attendance record with 7000 through the doors. Building on the success of previous events in Derby, the Coventry event was facilitated by 150 volunteers, and inspired people of all generations with a host of interactive activities, displays, presentations and performances.
The event was organised as part of British Science Week by Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) volunteers in partnership with Coventry University, Culture Coventry, Imagineer Productions and mCreat.
Visitors to the free event had the chance to build their own robot, get hands-on with coding, hear from experts about how robots improve people’s lives and experience virtual reality. A specially commissioned artistic performance saw Imagineer Productions’ ten-metre high Lady Godiva perform with the Urban Astronaut to large crowds throughout the day.
There were also craft and dance workshops, a range of static and moving exhibits and inspirational talks and lectures from world leaders in the field of robotics such as Kevin Warwick, who claims to be the world’s first cyborg after experimenting with implants that can control external devices.
Integrating science, technology, engineering and maths with the arts through STEAM initiatives is an incredibly successful way to reach audiences that would otherwise not consider or understand how the STEM subjects shape the world around us. Robot Day is a great way for Coventry to celebrate its culture and heritage of invention, innovation and design to inspire a new generation of creative innovators.
The organisers’ ambition is to build to an internationally significant celebration of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) in 2021 when Coventry is UK City of Culture. The quality of the event on the 2019 event and the number of people it attracted has shown the potential for doing that.
