Robot school creates global network: Talents from all over the world in line for Danish summer school
All places was filled quickly by talented robot students from the USA, Europe and Asia, as the danish robotics cluster for the second year in a row hosts a summer school for 50 of the world's finest emerging talents at SDU in Odense.
- I received a very insightful training regarding the fundamentals of robotics, in a high quality academic level. I visited innovative companies in the Danish robotics cluster and was able to expand significantly my global network.
So says Diego Hidalgo Carvajal from the Technical University of Munich in Germany. The Ph.D born in Ecuador was one of the 25 international talents who last year participated in Elite Robot Summer School in Denmark.
Just over a year after he and the other participants on the first team were gathered in Odense, SDU, which arranges the summer school, can report all places sold out for this year's edition.
”- I received a very insightful training regarding the fundamentals of robotics, in a high quality academic level. I visited innovative companies in the Danish robotics cluster and was able to expand significantly my global network.
- We have experienced a huge interest in participating, and I have had to be tough in the selection. Internationally alone, we have had more than 200 inquiries from students who would like one of the 25 places. They will participate together with 25 robot students from the Danish universities, says professor and initiator of the summer school, Henrik Gordon Petersen, who has selected the participants based on their academic abilities and results.
He welcomes the feedback from Diego, because the message is completely in line with the ambitions of the organizers in Denmark with the school.
- We want to spread the story of a unique academic environment, which together with the cluster of robot companies has put Denmark on the world map. At the same time, we aim at creating a network across national borders and continents for the benefit of both students, educational institutions and companies, says Henrik Gordon Petersen.
The robot students from Germany, South Korea, India, the American east and west coasts and universities in Denmark will arrive in Denmark on 3 August.
The Danish innovation centres in Silicon Valley, Boston, Munich, Seoul and Bangalore have established contacts with the foreign universities with which the robotics summer school collaborates.
- We experience a great and very positive interest in the summer school when we knock on the doors of some of the world's leading universities. Everyone really liked the concept of bringing together talented robotics students from around the world and giving them the opportunity to establish international contacts and networks early in their careers. At the same time, they see the potential in strengthening the network between universities and researchers through the school, says research attaché Allan Skårup Kristensen from the Danish innovation centre in Silicon Valley.
For two weeks, they receive training in modeling, artificial intelligence, human-robot interaction and robot control at the highest level at SDU in Odense. The students will also receive an introduction to entrepreneurship in the robot industry on Funen and in the rest of Denmark.
UR, MIR and Lego
In addition, an exciting cultural program awaits in Copenhagen and Odense, as well as visits to a number of prominent companies that either develop or use robot technology. The participants will visit e.g., the Funen robot comet Universal Robots and MIR as well as Danish giants such as Novo Nordisk, Danfoss and Lego.
The robotics school has been established in collaboration between SDU, Aalborg University, DTU, Aarhus University, ITU and the Danish innovation centers in Silicon Valley and Boston in the USA, Munich in Germany and Seoul in South Korea, all of which have collaborated to build partnerships with leading international universities and recruit international and Danish talents for the summer school. The Ministry of Higher Education and Science, Novo Nordiske Fonden and Odense Municipality contribute to the financing of the summer school.
Facts:
The Elite Robot Summer School runs from August 4 to August 19. The teaching takes place mainly at SDU in Odense, where the participants will go through an intensive program providing insight into the latest technologies for the design of advanced robot systems. This concerns e.g., modeling and simulation of robotic systems, computer vision, and human-robot interfaces.
The 25 international students come from the American universities UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Northeastern University. Students also attend from The Technical University of Munich and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. This year students from Soul National University and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea and Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur in India are also participating. The universities are all home to world-class robot technology research environments.
The elite summer school first took place last year. So far, another edition of the school is planned for next year, but the ambition is for it to be a regularly recurring event.
Professor at SDU Robotics Henrik Gordon Petersen is academically responsible for the robot summer school, and the students are also taught by the best researchers from other Danish universities. Online and physical education from guest lecturers from abroad is also planned.