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EPFL’s Festival Robotique draws a record 17,000 visitors
The 6th Annual Festival Robotique in Lausanne, Switzerland drew a record number of visitors this past Saturday, making it one of the largest public science events in the country. This year’s theme — Outer Space — was a clear winner with the many young people and families attending the event. Highlights of this year’s event included presentations by Switzerland’s first astronaut, Claude Nicollier, about his experience using robots on space missions.
Visitors also enjoyed the many hands-on workshops (including a build-your-own Mars Curiosity rover), competitions and exhibits. Workshops were organized into themes (Games, Programming and Making) and sorted by age group to make it easy for parents find appropriate activities for their children, even for the very young.
The Festival Robotique was launched by EPFL in 2008 to as a way to get young people excited about science, technology and innovation by connecting them directly with researchers, teachers and industrial robotics experts. The effort is working: the free-admission, non-profit event has seen steady increases in visitor attendance since its inauguration.
[Photos courtesy of EPFL: Alain Herzog]
tags: EPFL, events, Switzerland
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