Scuola di Robotica (School of Robotics) is a no-profit Society appointed as Educational and Training Center by the Italian Ministry of Education, Research and University. A Committee consisting of robotics scientists and of scholars in Humanities has instituted the School of Robotics (2000). Actually, the School of Robotics is upholding the transdisciplinary of its mission.

The aim of the “Scuola di Robotica” is to promote the knowledge of the science of Robotics among students and young people, in the range of undergraduates, to teachers and the general public. It provides for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning the results of the R&D in the field of Robotics, ICT, and of about complementary developments of other disciplines (Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychology, Applied Ethics, Education). Scuola di Robotica has been key in promoting Roboethics (Ethical, Legal, and Societal Aspects in Robotics - ELSA) and it was the ELSA Referee for the European Action CARE (Coordination Action for Robotics in Europe). It is a member of the European Centre for Women and Technology (ECWT). It is the National Centre of the Project Roberta, Girls Discover Robot; Regional Partner of the FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL); it is the National Coordinator of EC euRobotics Week. It the National Organizer of the NAO Challenge, and European Reference for the Humanoids Festival.

Since 2004 Scuola di Robotica has contributed to the birth and definition of Roboethics, the ethics applied to advanced robotics. In 2007 Scuola di Robotica coordinated the Atelier of Roboethics, which drew up the Roadmap on Roboethics:

(http://www.roboethics.org/atelier2006/docs/ROBOETHICS%20ROADMAP%20Rel2….

School of Robotics is deeply involved in the study of the complex interaction between Robotics and Society, and is supporting the international project for the development of Roboethics, the ethics applied to robotics.

The main aims of the School of Robotics are:

• Understanding the impact of ICT, of Robotics and of new technologies in general with regard to the processes and learning methodologies;
• Technical, scientific and methodological update for the teachers working in secondary technical and vocational schools;
• Development and diffusion of a highly innovative didactic methodology through a multidisciplinary Virtual Laboratory on the Internet.;
• Promoting cooperation between the different disciplines with regard to the realization of an innovative experiment;
• Promoting knowledge and responsible use of ICT and the New Media.

The School of Robotics has acquired a deep experience of Research Projects based on its working philosophy of the concept of the Virtual Lab. This allows leading student multidisciplinary working groups to develop the H/W and S/W programs to be exploited within this project.

School of Robotics was the main body committed to promoting the dissemination of the E-Robot and E-Robot 2 missions of the National Research Council (CNR)-Robotlab, organizing many “Science live” experiments, specifically structured for students. In collaboration with the SPACE Foundation, School of Robotics organized a national contest, E-Robot School Contest, among Technical and Vocation Italian Schools with the aim to design and build an experiment to be carried out and performed in Antarctica by the CNR underwater robot Romeo. The winning school could pilot via the Internet its experiment, installed on the robot Romeo in Antarctica. In the E-Robot2 Experiment, one hundred students in several Italian cities could be connected via the Internet with scientists and researchers in the Arctic, in the Svalbard Islands, where the E-Robot2 Expedition was carrying out important experiments. The students could pilot the robot Romeo, diving the seabed of the Kongsfjorden, where robot Romeo became the working tool for several European research centers. Furthermore, the School of Robotics co-ordinates a network of almost 100 schools from primary to secondary where robotics is employed as an educational platform to learn many subjects and to improve skills.

Over the past 18 years, School of Robotics has been committed to integrating Robotics into the Undergraduate Education not as an aim but as a tool for: 1) Providing continuous refresher courses for teachers; 2) Making it easier for new high school graduates to find a job; 3) sustain Gender Methodology in STEM Education; 4) Selecting and coaching of graduates interested in university careers; 5) helping societies and workers keep abreast of new technologies; 6); support the Special Need Education. It does it in cooperation with the School of Robotics nationwide network of educators started from the Robot-in-the-Classroom (in Italian, Robot@Scuola), which was originally funded by the Italian Ministry of Education (2005) and following School of Robotics kept supporting and feeding this network.