Hi everyone.
My name is Ezio, and today I will talk to you about connections:
connections between new subjects and new learning objects;
connections that come from listening
to the new generations,
that I am lucky enough to live every day at work and in the family.
What is my job?
I work for a leading company
in the field of automation and robotics.
And what is my duty?
I am the director of the Academy,
I am responsible for the training of 9,000 people in the world
and, at the same time, I am responsible
for opening the doors of the company to the youngsters, to the outside.
You see me in a white shirt
in the closing ceremony of an executive master,
but it is a listening experience
that I also have the lucky chance to live every day in the family.
I have four children, alas, all males.
I would have liked a female so much
and I'm willing to trade one of my sons,
if someone had a daughter to give me.
I have three children: Francesco, Giacomo, Filippo
and little Tesfa, adopted from Ethiopia;
you see him in my arms.
My kids, like all young people today,
attend an educational system
that struggles to face the challenge
of knowledge related to technological evolution
and related to how the fourth industrial revolution
is totally changing our personal and professional life.
Yes, the new technologies of artificial intelligence,
additive manufacturing,
the Internet of Things and collaborative robotics
are really changing our experience
and above all the way companies design, produce
and distribute their products and services.
To work with these technologies,
you need new skills, new mentalities, new jobs;
then, as I wrote in my book, a new training perimeter is needed,
which connects new subjects -
young people, schools, universities and companies -
and also knows how to connect new learning objects:
technology, school subjects and work culture.
The story I will tell you today
is a story about how business Academies are promoting these connections
and how, thanks to innovative artifacts,
they are succeeding in creating the skills of the future in young people.
So let's start with the connections between new learning subjects.
Some initiatives, which are expressions of these connections,
are those destined for young talents and, why not, also for professionals.
Some examples:
the robotics driving license.
In addition to language certification and computer certification,
a wonderful initiative
carried out by the business academies together with the teachers,
is this:
a project
to offer young people the skills
to use and program an industrial robot.
There already are 5,000 young people in Italy
who have tried this certification;
when they are 18
they will be able to work in a factory with 1,000 robots
and guide and program them.
Another initiative resulting from these connections
is a Summer School, "Project and People Management".
Yes, in this technological evolution
we have to manage projects and to be very good at managing people.
Ten days in Shanghai, Detroit or Belo Horizonte
to acquire these methods and tools.
Still, is it all made by whom?
By a Business Academy together with the university.
But the initiative we are mostly proud of
is a degree course, called "Innovation and Technology Management".
What’s new about it?
Seated in the same counter, you can find engineers,
physics graduates, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists;
and thy get a cross-disciplinary degree about connections.
Because this fourth industrial revolution
must not only be guided by computer scientists
and engineers, who I really love,
but also by psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, human experts,
so that they can take
all the opportunities of the technological evolution,
trying to mitigate risks.
Here are some initiatives for talents.
But also initiatives for youngsters who already work in companies.
"4.0 Manufacturing" Master program is now seven years old,
run by the Institute of Technology and by a Business Academy:
kids go to the company, their master is paid from day one,
every month, three weeks of work and one of the master,
not only provided by the teachers
but from the company's Subject Matter Experts.
And one last initiative, another expression of these connections,
is an executive master
where more than 40 managers from all over Europe
acquire the technological and managerial skills
to lead this transformation.
Here's the new training perimeter,
where kids are not passive users of other people's services,
but are protagonists of innovation.
Where school, university
do not settle themselves with providing theories and models
but are part of the true reality of the companies,
and give their important and precious contribution;
it's a new training perimeter
where the company does not give up its ambition to create and spread culture
and transfer it to the new generations,
with that typical DNA of the corporate identity:
learning by doing and by connecting to others.
Now I would like to tell you about some other connections
between learning objects, school subjects,
technology and business culture.
It all started when we began to develop this robot:
we were closed in a laboratory
together with many young people and many experts,
and, while we were there, we said
Well, let's follow these three principles:
we would like this robot to be modular,
open - it was an open innovation -
and easy to use.
While we were so busy
working in this laboratory, in this garage,
we went to visit a business Academy
that had a clever idea.
It started a project called "Physics on a motorcycle":
they said, let's use motorcycles to attract young people
and teach them how much physics is in a motorcycle.
And then we thought about our generation,
the one of the past millennium,
because motorcycles were a symbol of our generation;
many of my friends and I grew up with three basic milestones:
fourteen, sixteen and eighteen years old.
These are the steps that have marked our lives.
At 14, we were waiting for the monocilinder scooter:
having the Ciao or the Sì was a fundamental goal.
After that goal, at sixteen,
we wanted the motorcycle license.
I had a Cagiva Elephant.
Prehistoric, now.
And finally, at 18, the driving license, the car.
On this generational aspect,
I want to tell you an anecdote about my family.
My wife and I were ready to face
the demands of our children related to these three steps;
so when Francesco was 14,
we were prepared to oppose
the reasons why we would never buy him a moped.
We made a list, like Lorenzo's, and got ready:
"Francesco, we will never buy it because of this and that",
we were ready.
At 14, Francesco didn't ask us anything.
We said: "Francesco is smart, he wants a motorcycle.
Let's wait two years.
We keep the list, we have saved it in a special folder".
And when he was 16, we were ready.
Francesco did not ask us anything, not even at the age of 16.
We said, man, he wants a car
as big as this stage.
When he was 18, nothing happened.
We had to force him to the driving school
to avoid dealing on Saturday nights with logistics services.
What does this story tell us?
That new generations are attracted to values and objects
that are obviously different from ours.
They are attracted to tablets and phones.
In the evening, at my home,
everyone stares at his own tablet or phone,
scrolling the feed of Facebook or Instagram.
This is the present, and who knows about the future.
And so while we were developing that robot, we said:
"Aren't robots even more appealing than a motorcycle,
to attract the new generations? "
And so we went on and said,
Let's use it, not only to code or to do robotic stuff
but to do Math, Physics,
and the STEM subjects that are fundamental for the future".
We created what we call a Robo-Experience:
a series of experiences, centered around the robot
that connect young people to the robot,
such as workshops, centres, events and programs,
This short video shows you one of these initiatives.
[e.Do LEARNING CENTER - An innovative Educational Environment]
[TO LEARN: School subjects, Soft skills and Industrial Culture with Robotics]
[4 FOCUSES: STEM, Robotics, Soft Skills, Working Culture]
[INSPIRE]
[PLAY]
[LEARN]
[LESSON PLAN]
[WELCOME / INTRODUCTION TO ROBOTICS/ SCHOOL SUBJECTS THROUGH e.Do / EVALUATION]
[WELCOME]
[INTRODUCTION TO ROBOTICS]
[INTRODUCTION TO ROBOTICS - PLAY WITH e.DO]
[SCHOOL SUBJECTS THROUGH e.DO - APPLY SCHOOL SUBJECTS]
[SCHOOL SUBJECTS THROUGH e.DO - USE e.DO]
[EVALUATION]
Here, this is an example of one of these center
attended by more than 10,000 people.
But our dream is different.
Our dream is to place a robot in every school,
to help innovate teaching
and help new generations to be protagonists of the future.
The magic is not a robot but our children;
it is a teacher, a facilitator, a robot,
simple wooden objects that the robot moves,
and it moves them in the reality,
not in a virtual screen,
before which our children already spend too much time.
And then there's a tablet.
Yes, this robot is easy to use.
Robotics is experiencing today what PCs went through in the 1980s.
In the 80s, you may recall, only computer experts
could use the Z Spectrum or the Commodore 64.
Computers, today, are in everyone's house.
Well, the same thing is happening to the robots:
up to now, guiding them was a programmer's job;
today even our children, Andrea, Alessia, Federico,
can use it without taking any lessons.
Yes, there is this interaction,
which is the same we have in our mobile phones,
this interface that allows you to control and move it with just one tap.
But there is also a further evolution: it can be programmed with Blockly,
that thought
and that logical-computational language
that helps put things in order.
Then, of course, if computer scientists want to play, they have many chances to.
What kind of activities are offered?
As you saw in the video, the kids first assemble it
using their own manual skills.
And then? And then, they play:
learning by doing something is so pedagogically important -
but "andragogically", also,
Then we face and solve problems
that involve the use of mathematics and physics.
Math?
Some examples: the sum, the subtraction, the equivalences,
the geometric figures that children in elementary school, like Alessia,
study every day at school;
well, it's even more fun with e.Do, and even more effective.
But there are something even for the older ones,
like Federico:
analytical geometry, first and second degree equations
that's what they are for!
Not only to solve boring exercises,
but to make children learn how to move a robot in the room.
Therefore, we have lived many experiences, we have understood some things.
First, this robot promotes participation and inclusion:
even children with dyslexia, or ADHD, could use it.
Even my little Tesfa, with an extra chromosome and disabled,
is very good at using this robot, and that's important.
It then promotes the inclusion, the application of subjects to reality,
and, above all, spreads the culture of work, which is so precious:
working in team, keeping tidy, solving problems, being creative,
having critical thinking.
And also, it connects
the cognitive, manual and emotional dimensions.
I would like to wrap up with a quote of Walt Disney:
[If you can dream it, you can do it].
Here is our dream:
to connect new subjects and new learning objects.
And above all, listen to young people.
I decided to close my speech
with a photo of my son Tesfa while listening to J-Ax:
we must not forget that they are the protagonists of the future.
(Applause)