Alternative Education

“CARRELLO_AMICO” è un prototipo di un "reale" carrello da supermercato automatizzato in grado di seguire gli spostamenti di una persona durante gli acquisti.
Il progetto nasce per cercare di aiutare le persone anziane o con un handicap durante la spesa in un supermercato o negli aereoporti quando devono spostare dei bagagli cercando di lasciare le mani libere.

Prendendo un carrello da supermercato sono state motorizzate le ruote tramite dei motori in corrente continua, gli studenti hanno progettato e realizzato in laboratorio driver di potenza per i motori.
Per la parte di controllo è stata usata una scheda ARDUINO UNO in modo che sia facilmente replicabile da altri maker che vorranno confrontarsi con problematiche simili.

La persona che usa il "CARRELLO_AMICO" dovrà indossare una cintura munita di led ad infrarossi, mentre sul carrello sarà presente un ricevitore in grado di rilevare la direzione da seguire, e pilotare opportunamente i motori.

Questo è il prototipo 1.0 sviluppato presso, IIS "Tito Sarrocchi" di Siena, il progetto è "aperto", sono a disposizione di chi ne fa richiesta tutti gli schemi elettrici il software e ogni altra soluzione adottata, affinchè altri makers possano replicarlo e migliorarlo.

India is a country of a majority of youth, most of whom reside in villages. However, India's development has concentrated itself mostly on cities, making them hubs of opportunity, while the villages slid back over the years. Although an agrarian economy, with industrialization the focus shifted on big companies in the cities that made much more money, as opposed to the villages where agriculture became increasingly difficult, owing to lack of Government oversight and innovation. As the capital difference grew, correspondingly the gap in opportunity grew along. One of these gaps came about in the field of education.
The cities had and could afford quality private education, but such access is not available to the villages. The Government schools were quickly proven to be inefficient, with high rates of drop-out, teacher absence, under-capacity of teachers, etc.
The question however is that is it really possible to have great teachers for such a huge population as India which send millions of kids to school every year. So how could we bring the best teachers from around the world to everyone?
The other question is, who can be a teacher? Is the traditional concept of a teacher still applicable, where a teacher is supposed to be an expert and a deliverer of information? Why can't we all be teachers, and students ?
The third question is, what is the kind of education that we need? Is it enough to be book experts, as it is now the case in India. Shouldn't education be practical?
Project DEFY is bringing these concepts through hands-on experience and leveraging the internet. The project aims at creating a system where anyone can learn skills in areas of their interest, from high quality sources, in a completely customized fashion, at a makerspace, with fellow individuals, learning out of curiosity, without teachers. A space which has tools and equipment that are used to build things and to learn while building.