Robotics by Design Lab Launch
On December 9, 2019, Strate School of Design launched a common laboratory on Artificial Intelligence and Social Robots, with the participation of several companies, a world leader in design & innovation consulting, famous universities and international researchers.
« Robotics by design Lab – AI, Robots & Humans? Ecologies of Living Together» strives to become a genuine experimentation platform that questions the place of social robotics and artificial intelligence in the short, medium and long term, in an everyday context.
The purpose of this common laboratory is to imagine real-life scenarios in the fields of our industrial partners. It also aims to understand the fundamental transition that we are going through with robotics and AI, and also to experiment new types of relations between these recent technologies and the world. Therefore, the ultimate goal of Robotics by Design Lab is to create new technologies of living together to foster meaningful innovations that will be considered as opportunities rather than hardships.
The ambition of Robotics by Design Lab
This common laboratory will span over four years, hosting four industrial PhDs conducted over a three-year period in our partner companies. The fourth and last year, the companies will implement the results of each thesis in their respective environments. The profiles of the future PhD students will combine design, robotics, computer sciences, cognitive sciences but also human sciences, ethics and ecology. Apart from the different thesis projects, the laboratory also aims to stimulate the scientific community in robotics. Our goal is to establish the laboratory as an instrument that kindles and improves shared knowledge of these various communities through design, design research and multidisciplinary work so as to lay a path to the future.
The importance of design in the lab
This great project can only come about through design, a discipline centered on people's life experiences. It also acts as a mediator between technology (robotics and AI) and the pursuit of meaning found in Social Sciences. Thus, the Robotics by Design Lab project is to imagine, create, experiment and bring about real-life situations using these emerging technologies, thanks to design ability to use imaginary territories and set up new narratives.
