Dubai students make 3R robot to raise virus awareness

Jamil Khan, Senior Reporter

A handful of IGCSE students from Dubai Carmel School, backed by the School Innovation Department, have come together to create robots for COVID-19 awareness. The robots aims to raise students’ awareness of Covid issues, encourage their creativity, and increase reusing and recycling.

The robot can act as a virtual doctor by checking the body temperature level of students, dispensing sanitising hand rub, and interacting with students. If a student is experiencing any symptoms, it can send an alert to the school officials. It can also program for conducting awareness classes for the students.

Three students, Maram Munzer, Malak Issam, and Irfan Rami, under the supervision of their teacher Jolly P Joy, spent three months to fulfil this project.

The school IT department hopes that this robot, which can interact with students, will help pupils raise awareness and equip them to deal with the current COVID-19 pandemic situation.

“Most of the students make robots by buying parts from the shop and assembling it. Sourcing the components to build a prototype for a robot is no longer a challenge. However such robots will only work according to the program made by its makers. But on our robot, we can make changes to the program as needed and therefore use it for different tasks,” said Maram, one of the students involved with the development of the robot.

What makes this robot different is its construction method and the technology chosen for it.

The concept of 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – was used effectively in the construction of the robot.

“We designed most of the parts using recycled scrap items. Scrap water cans, steel cans, utensils, water bottles, mixer grinder parts, boxes, aluminium drying racks, etc. are the major components used for creating the structure of this robot. Apart from this, we used abandoned electronic devices such as tab displays, processors, speakers, cameras, and sensors, acquired from our school labs. So the component purchase (ultimately the cost) is limited to a thermometer and some stationery items,” explained Irfan Rami.

This robot project is not only inexpensive but also promotes the concept of reuse. This is probably the first robot of its kind in the history of British schools in the UAE.

The backend technology they used is another interesting part of this project.

Instead of opting for external help from any resource person students used existing knowledge they gained from the curriculum learned earlier. They named the robot Dr. Robot Carmali.

“It was a different experiment to apply the knowledge they got from IGCSE curriculum component they were studying, in their real life. I have never heard of another robot being created using the knowledge gained from the ICT textbook in Cambridge. We will soon be building two new robots like this, as a gift to Principal Dr.Alia Yahya and Academic Coordinator Mr. Tarek Ahmed who helped us makes this project a reality,” Says Mr.Jolly P Joy, Innovation Coordinator.

Dr. Robot Carmali can also be used to conduct stress-free exams, record students’ attendance at school, and give other instructions. This project is a concrete example of how the curriculum can be used to develop student creativity and critical thinking, effectively integrating the concept of 3R and innovation.

“Today’s job market doesn’t depend on a university degree, they actually depend on what projects students engage them, what internships they involved in, What are some of the skills that they can contribute and attribute to themselves in the community at large. So the skill has become a very important and integral point where generations, especially the job market where generations to come have to depend on innovation skills and this robot is a great example of what has happened. So I’m very proud of our students to take on this project serving humanity at the time of COVID-19 and at the same time serving their minds and fuelling their efforts and their energies into something that is very useful. When we do projects like these to give them, it teaches them a bunch of notes – one is a brand new skill set,” says Dr. Maya Al Hawary, Chairwoman of Board of Governors & Director of Planning.

For the team, the inspiration behind creating this project was their teachers’ readiness to incorporate innovatively teaching styles to deliver Cambridge IGCSE lessons at their school, Dubai Carmel.