PFI-TT: Soft robotic educational kits for recruiting a more diverse group of students into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields

这个创新伙伴关系-技术翻译（PFI-TT）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是激发兴趣，并吸引更多来自代表性不足背景的学生进入机器人和科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域。这些目标将通过为学生、教育工作者、研究人员和业余爱好者开发工程工具包来实现。该项目可以通过两种主要方式减少STEM领域中不同背景（即女性，有色人种，低社会经济地位学生）的代表性不足。首先，通过向初高中学生介绍机器人课程，它将增加来自代表性不足群体的学生在有影响力的年龄进入这一领域的可能性，届时许多学生将发展出反映他们成年后未来社会角色的身份。此外，软体机器人套件的多学科方法可能会吸引对艺术，工艺制作，时装设计，医学和环境保护等领域感兴趣的学生。邀请具有不同学科兴趣的学生可以在许多领域鼓励创新的想法和解决方案。该项目旨在开发新的软机器人STEM套件，与教育合作伙伴一起评估其效用，并加深与具有支持以硬件为重点的初创公司经验的组织的合作关系。市场上大多数机器人STEM套件由预制组件组成，可以以不同的配置组装以实现各种物理设计。学生受到硬件的限制，限制了跨学科合作和创新的潜力，最终阻碍了新观点或新想法的发展。该项目旨在完善和开发入门级软机器人套件，包括材料、构建说明和教育课程。该套件的重点将放在通常在机器人设计入门经验中被忽视的主题上，如制造业、材料科学、机械设计、生物学、医学和人机合作。这些工具包将由课程支持的硬件组成，其设计将基于学生和教育工作者的反馈，最终将与教育机构合作，在高中生中进行试点评估。此外，将开发首个开放式软体机器人套件，以扩大设计和创意的可能性，并降低学生、创客和艺术家创造更复杂软体机器人的门槛。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project will be to spark interest and induct a more diverse group of students from underrepresented backgrounds into robotics and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields generally. These objectives will be enabled through the development of engineering toolkits for students, educators, researchers, and hobbyist-makers. This project may reduce the underrepresentation of various backgrounds in STEM fields (i.e. women, people of color, low SES students) in two primary ways. First, by introducing robotics curriculum to students in middle and high school, it will increase the likelihood that students from underrepresented groups will have access to this field at an impactful age, when many students develop identities that reflect their future societal roles as adults. Additionally, the multidisciplinary approach of the soft robotic kits may appeal to students with interests in areas like art, craft making, fashion design, medicine, and environmental protection. Inviting students with diverse subject interests may encourage innovative ideas and solutions in many fields. The project seeks to develop new soft robotic STEM kits, evaluate their utility with educational partners, and deepen partnerships with organizations that have experience supporting hardware-focused startups. Most of the robotics STEM kits on the market consist of pre-built components that can be assembled in different configurations to realize various physical designs. Students are limited by the constraints of the hardware, limiting the potential for cross-curricular collaboration and innovation and ultimately discouraging the development of new perspectives or novel ideas. This project seeks to refine and develop entry-level soft robotic kits complete with materials, build instructions, and an educational curriculum. The focus of the kits will be on subjects typically neglected in introductory robotic design experiences such as manufacturing, material science, mechanical design, biology, medicine, and human-robot cooperation. These kits will consist of curriculum-backed hardware and their design will be based on feedback from students and educators, and ultimately be evaluated in pilots with high school students in partnership with educational organizations. In addition, a first open-ended soft robotic kit will be developed to broaden the possibilities for design and creativity and lower the barrier of entry for students, makers, and artists for creating more sophisticated soft robots.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.