Intelligent Robots in Science and Society

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I am privileged to lead the EPSRC public engagement project 'Walking with Robots', a project that is taking the UK's intelligent robotics research out of the research lab and into public spaces, science centres, science festivals and schools. Walking with Robots is proving to be an extraordinary success. In its first two years the project has either organised or participated in 160 different events and activities around the UK, reaching an audience of about 60,000. The project is educating and entertaining young children and their families, encouraging teenage children to think about what impact robots might have in their lifetimes and engaging adults in serious debates about the ethical questions raised by intelligent robots in society.I am passionate about science and engineering, and passionate about communicating science and engineering. I believe that there is much more that I can do to explain and interpret advances in the very broad and multidisciplinary field that intelligent robotics now is and, through robotics, convey the excitement and value of research to the public. Furthermore, my broad experience as an electronic engineer, entrepreneur and facilitator of knowledge transfer from research idea to commercial product, means that I can set my public engagement work in the real-world context of economics and wealth creation.I propose a Senior Media Fellowship with a focus on intelligent robots in science and society. A theme that will explore and explain the very rapid advances in intelligent robotics, and the wider implications of those advances to society. I propose a programme of media activities structured around my current research projects, especially EPSRC project 'The Emergence of Artificial Culture in Robot Societies'. Those activities will include a TV documentary telling the story of the artificial culture project as it unfolds. The project will encompass both traditional broadcast TV and online project TV; the latter designed to reach younger audiences and connect those audiences with research in a way that is not possible with traditional broadcast media.