WHO ARE WE

UNIVERSIDAD DE BURGOS
Applicant Organisation (Spain)

The University of Burgos (UBU) was founded in 1994 and has assumed its role in the local and regional economy and in the larger scientific development responding to market demands (e.g. new grades in accordance to the needs of the labour market) and developing wide research networks (e.g. integrated research between the university, the private sector, public institutions, and civil society organizations). UBU has experience on delivering successful European Projects.

Our group consists in researchers with a broad formation in science and science education. We are teachers in the Faculty of Education of the University of Burgos, being responsible for the training in science contents and science education methodology for future k-12 and secondary teachers. We also teach in doctoral international programs in science education. We have a broad experience in the research in the professional development of pre service and in service teachers of K-12 and secondary levels in science education, in particular in the constitution of communities of practice. We have experience in National, European and International projects. In recent years, we have been studying and improving how to train pre-service teachers for science teaching by inquiry, within an integrative and inclusive perspective. In this line, we develop a successful extra-curricular activity, for pre-service teachers and kids, Science on Saturdays, whereby funny scientific problems are solved by inquiry. http://www.ubu.es/divulgacion-cientifica-ucci-ubu/vocaciones-cientificas/sabados-de-ciencia

This year we´ve launched the on-line postgraduate degree STEAM EDUCATION , with programming & educational robotics, the first degree of this kind in SPAIN. http://www.ubu.es/noticias/nace-el-titulo-de-experto-en-steam


POLO EUROPEO della CONOSCENZA (VERONA)
Italian Partner

www.europole.org

Polo Europeo della Conoscenza – I.C. Lorenzi-europole – National Network of Schools for Pedagogical Research and Innovation is a public body no profit – National network (200 Organizations) of schools of every order and Degree working for the European social and educational integration and for the innovation of the pedagogical research in Europe. Its main fields of activities are to promote the European dimension and integration through European and extra – European workshops, seminars, conferences, partnerships and projects. The Europole is planning “umbrella activities” involving in the projects the greatest possible number of institutions of the consortium. The Europole works in every field of education, from ITC to in-service training courses for teachers , from Kindergartens to adult education in prison and in rural areas. It works also on fighting against xenophobia and racism, helping to break stereotypes around gender among different cultures and religions, training of students , of disable students and drop outs, intercultural learning and vocational training field. The 4000 members of the network are working with learners at risk of social and cultural exclusion: immigrants, refugees, disable, drop-out and learners with separated parents, social psychological borderline situations, bullish, learners with disabilities and other special needs. It also works in job strategies and economical researches fields.


HKR – HOEGSKOLAN KRISTIANSTAD
Swedish Partner

Kristianstad University (HKR) is a Swedish university with around 15 000 students, which started as a teacher college in 1835. HKR, located in a campus 10 minutes outside Kristianstad centre, has over a hundred partner universities in the world and receives around two hundred international students each year. HKR campus houses four faculties situated around a central library. The library provides not only journals, books and digital resources, but also professional support in information evaluation, search strategies and higher education didactics. For a general description of the university, see www.hkr.se.

The active partner in botSTEM is the Department of Mathematics and Science Education at the Faculty of Education, which has an extensive tradition in teaching mathematics and science in pre- and in-service teacher education programmes and courses for preschool, primary, secondary, and upper-secondary levels. The Department houses the research environment LISMA (Learning in Science and Mathematics) with internationally renowned research in the field of mathematics and science education, for further information see www.hkr.se/lisma.

The in botSTEM involved researchers are Dr Andreas Redfors Professor of Physics Education. Andreas is the academic leader of the research group Learning in Science and Mathematics. Among Andreas; research interests are the roles of theoretical models and mathematics in children's and students' learning. He is generally interested in the relation between views on the nature of Science, mathematics and the teaching and learning of Science in connection to uses of ubiquitous technology. Dr Marie Fridberg Senior lecturer in Science Education at Kristianstad University, Sweden. She is a preschool teacher with a PhD in Medical Microbiology. Marie’s research focus is ubiquitous computing and uses of computer tablets among young children. Björn Cronquist Lecturer in Science and Technology. He is working on completing a PhD in Informatics and teaches Technology and computing at the Early-Years and primary Teacher Educations. Björn has a research interest in ubiquitous computing, especially in developing teaching activities related to uses of tablet computers, robots and programming in early-years education.


ADL – ADELE ROBOTS SOCIEDAD LIMITADA (LLANERA ASTURIAS)
Spanish Partner

In late 2010, framed under innovation and new technologies, Adele Robots arose from a group of entrepreneurs who seek to improve the people’s life making use of robotics. Adele Robots offers robotic solutions to human problems, using the latest trends in technology and human machine interaction identified by the technological surveillance department. The company develops its own products and provides consulting services and advice in the field of social robotics to companies that believe in a new way of interaction and of provisioning services to their clients.

Adele Robots’ products and services are targeting the following industries:
• Marketing: creating robots that get people attention and interact with them
• Education: Providing teachers new tools to motivate children and stimulate their
interest for STEM
• Healthcare: Therapy robots for dementia and new interfaces for enabling people
access to new services at their homes.
Research interest focus on human-robot interaction and human modelling to provide easier ways to interact with technology.

• Relevant publications
Martínez, C. Á., & Cruz, A. B. (2005, August). Emotion recognition in non-structured utterances for human-robot interaction. In Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 2005. ROMAN 2005. IEEE International Workshop on (pp. 19-23). IEEE.

• R&D projects coordinated by them, involving several partners of all kinds:

FED4FIRE FIONA (http://www.fed4fire.eu/fiona/): within an open call launched by FED4FIRE, an Integrating Project under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) addressing the work programme topic Future Internet Research and Experimentation, Adele Robots has been granted to include FIONA as a testbed of FED4FIRE federation.

FIONA (http://www.sparkingtogether.com/): Led by Adele Robots, Fiona was a R&D project in social robotics that aims to build a collaborative platform to develop a
conversational agent. With a budget of over half a million Euros it is funded by the program NEOTEC from the Spanish CDTI (Centre for Industrial Technical Development), for new creation companies.

ACROSS (http://www.acrosspse.com/): ACROSS is a large public-private-partnership R&D project, with a budget of 6M€, involving 13 organizations cooperating in the field of social robotics. Research and industrial institutions takes part in ACROSS, including end-users from several application domains.


K-VELOCE I+D+i
Spanish Partner

K-VELOCE I+d+i (SENIOR EUROPA S.L) is an SME specialized in the development, implementation and exploitation of R&D projects and their funding with over 10 years of experience. K-veloce research lines are focused on the field of social policies, and specifically citizen social participation, socio-economic analysis of policies, initiatives and action plans, and accessibility, and nowadays, they are opening new lines in human behaviour, research in evaluation of the socio-economic impact of technology, new business models, social innovation, participatory processes, co-creation and new governance models.

The geographic outreach of Kveloce I+D+i covers the European and international scope, being located in three Spanish regions: Valencia, Asturias and Cataluña.

The company cooperates with several national and regional authorities and Research centres, among them the University of Valencia, Regional Health Ministry, Regional Ministry of Environment, Water and Building, the Valencia Business Confederation, the Chamber of Commerce of Alicante, Valencia, Navarra and Cantabria, among others. Furthermore, the company has strong expertise in knowledge management for innovative companies and develops strategic plans to manage the innovation and transfer it to market. Besides, the company is also involved in academic initiatives, and has joined several programmes (H2020, FP7, Erasmus+) in projects related with development of ICT platforms, gamification and game-based education, social inclusion, accessibility, healthcare and other social impacts.

http://kveloce.com/

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