Insightful Sharing on Robotics Education and Makers’ Obstacles from MIT Visiting Scientist

MIT Visiting Scientist: Dr. David Tseng

• Co-founder of CAVEDU Education
• Visiting Scientist of MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
• PhD degree in Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Master degree in Toy and Game Design

What capabilities can robotics education cultivate?

Dr. Tseng believes robotics education can cultivate students’ hands-on ability. When students work on their robots, they are given opportunities to really build something with their own hands. Meanwhile, their abilities to address open-ended questions are also improved while they trying to make their robots work properly; as during this process students are trained to explore problems causing malfunctions and relevant scientific principles behind it, and to figure out a way to solve problems.

In MIT, when collaborating with APP Inventor to hold robotics courses, how did Dr. Tseng motivate students?

Dr. Tseng integrated his LEGO robotics courses with APP Inventor. Through the combination, students were able to use the graphical user interface to create apps to control their robots. The user-friendly interface on APP Inventor enabled students to drag and drop visual objects to control robots and to modify their design when robots not working well. The combination made learning processes easy and fun, cultivating students’ computational thinking, getting them interested in the field and paving the way for their future learning.

What obstacles makers will face on their way to become entrepreneurs?

Dr. Tseng thinks the obstacle exists in the high market expectation –cheap and high quality products. When just starting their business, startup makers make products in relatively low quantity. As a result, these products could turn out more expensive than finished products out there on the market, hence less competitive.

How does TECHDesign help makers realize their ideas?

TECHDesign provides a wide array of off-the-shelf and customizable solutions. Makers get to purchase a customizable solution on TECHDesign to lay a solid foundation for their project, turning the solution into part of their projects. Besides makers, Dr. Tseng recommends TECHDesign to anyone looking for electronic components to TECHDesign that offers direct sales from original manufacturers.