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From now on, man will surround himself with robots that help him, not replace him, says Ralitsa Kostadinova.
The third-year Technical University student won a gold medal at the Duke of Edinburgh Award for her achievements in technology and programming.
“Robots will not displace humans. You will always need it. I think the new type of workstation will look like this: a man equipped with robots to help him. Ralitsa Kostadinova, a third-year student at Plovdiv Technical University, believes this.
A few weeks ago, the robot-obsessed student won the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Gold Award.
The award is actually a UK-sponsored personal development program. In its
participate on
8 million young people
from 130 countries,
which exchange
knowledge and experience
with each other and with their mentors. In addition, they present their achievements on a special platform.
So far, Ralitsa has a silver level and a bronze award. They help her stay motivated and develop in the directions she wants: photography and video processing.
The gold level already gives the opportunity to deal with robots. To achieve this, in addition to developing skills, it also emphasizes physical activity and volunteering.
This year Ralitsa also won a scholarship from the Jürgen Dorman Foundation in a competition with competitors studying engineering. Currently, the third-year student and his colleagues from the University Robotics Club are creating a machine to compete in the international IRC (International Robots Competition).
The task set for the 250 participants from all over the world is Robot, help us! (“Robot, help us”). Unlike most of those who bet on the map of the pandemic, Ralitsa, Emil and Stanislav decided to create a garden robot.
“It just came to our knowledge then
one of
boys
what does he say it is
city gardener
and grow fresh vegetables on the terrace.
In the memory of our robot we will put information when certain crops are sown and it will remind us: today we have to plant peppers or peas. We have programmed the robot so that it can walk through the garden by itself and sow these crops, ”he explains.
Students take the garden robot parts from the robotics lab and assemble them at home. They also add their own electronic and mechanical elements. In the international race, they are competing for a $ 1,000 bonus, which they will likely re-invest in robot parts.
Ralitsa emphasizes that since she was little she has been passionate about engineering thanks to her grandfather and father. Her father was an electrical engineer and in her childhood he used to take her to various places. The girl helped him with his work, gave him tools and listened to explanations of how he worked. Little by little he became interested in technology.
This passion leads Ralitsa to the Vocational School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering in Plovdiv, while her peers prefer to occupy the ranks of elite language schools.
There, the girl actively participates in the Student Parliament, in various competitions and enthusiastically absorbs all the news on technology sites.
Upon entering the specialty “Automation, Information and Control Engineering” at the Technical University,
immediately
Write to
college
robotics club
Ralitsa Kostadinova is hopeful, as this year the university has acquired new industrial robots that allow students to unleash their creative potential.
Due to the pandemic, the robotics club is unable to hold its weekly meetings, but students continue to build racing robots remotely.
“They are small machines. We compete with them in the categories” Minisumo “,” 3D maze “,” Line tracking “. I am more interested in free developments, which are also part of the competition. Last year I was working on a printed robot in 3D, working on its management. It is something like a small-scale industrial robot, “explains Ralitsa.
In addition to automated machines, the student takes programming seriously. He and his colleagues have been teaching at the SoftUni Kids Academy since February of this year.
“I started
I teach the children
of the courses
“First steps in
programming “
and “Program with Micro: bit plate”.
Then they invited me to develop the course “Micro: bit robotics”.
I want to continue helping people in some way, but I also want to take care of technology. It seemed to me that robotics was the best way to achieve these two goals of mine ”, says the student.
Engineering and programming also continue to be a male field at the Technical University. Of the 25 people in the course, only 3 are women.
According to Ralitsa, the reason few women enter technical specialties is due to the widespread belief that working with and operating machines is hard physical work.
“Heavy parts must be dragged, large screws must be screwed, which is men’s work. This is no longer the case and more and more women are beginning to enter these professions,” says the future engineer.
The third-year student admits that she doesn’t make long-term plans for the future, as she doesn’t know what will be interesting in 5 years. For now
intends to
United
company,
it works
with industrial
jobs,
and to see if you like it, and to get acquainted with this side of robotics.
When you don’t like programming and robots, you find ways to have fun.
“Before the pandemic, I went swing dancing and hiking in the mountains. Now we meet at the homes of a small group of friends and mainly play board games,” says Ralitsa.
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