For the first time ever, the Department of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the Faculty of ICT at the University of Malta took centre stage at the Malta Robotics Olympiad (MRO) held recently. The contribution of the department was unprecedented with three distinct activities.
The first activity was a large stand operated by the Department of AI in collaboration with Open Tinkers. Various lecturers of the department showcased their work, with the participation of their students. Of particular interest was the Virtual Reality showcase. For many children and adults, it was the first time that they were exposed to a Virtual Reality (VR) experience and this opened for them new worlds and possibilities. The Department of AI is working hard on three VR projects at the moment with the aim of establishing itself as a centre of excellence through the creation of ground breaking VR experiences. The stand was also the home of the MakeBlock robotic kits provided by Open Tinkers, whereby visitors could play around with the robots available. In one instance, visitors could change the path of a self-driving robot and get it to navigate through a maze of a house. The houses were 3D printed thanks to students of San Anton School. In another instance, visitors could battle two robots in an arena using lasers. A large number of people visited the stand and tried on the various technologies available. Many also enquired about the courses offered by the Faculty in particular the BS in AI and the MSc AI in Automation, Creative Technologies, FinTech, Big Data or Computer Vision.
The second activity supported by the Department of AI revolved around the EDx conference. Throughout this conference, speakers from various fields got together in order to discuss emerging issues related to technology. These varied from the future of communications, to experiments at CERN, Virtual Reality, thinking robots, ethics, etc. Towards the end of the MRO, an interesting panel discussion was organized and broadcast throughout the venue discussing AI and Ethics. The panelists where Prof. Alexiei Dingli, Mr Dylan Seychell and Mr James Catania. The panel discussed the rise of robots and their influence in our world. In particular, they looked at how this might affect us and what we should do in order to ensure that we do not live in a future governed by machines.
The final activity, which proved to be the most demanding, was assisting in the construction of the star robot Wall-E. The works started in October 2016 and five students joining the MSc AI were entrusted with the construction of the robot under the guidance of Mr James Catania and his assistants. The team was split into three groups focusing on different aspects of the robot including the track drive, the body and the head. The students had to research in detail and plan the individual parts of the robot in order to create an exact replica of the movie character. Another team of students was working on the communication with the robot. Such exercise proved to be extremely fruitful for the students since their robot had a real purpose and was not simply a toy system. This was evident when the robot was revealed for the first time to the public in front of a cheering and excited crowd as the students’ eyes shone with pride.
Overall, the MRO proved to be a huge success. UM academics were extremely proud of their students who rose to the occasion and showcased the excellence constantly promoted in the department. With 13,000 visitors, the department is likely to have managed to instill in the hearts of the children present the love for technology. The Department of AI is committed to keep on striving to ensure that more children choose computing studies because its mission is to create the world of the future and this can only be achieved with the help of the little dreams of today.