The last month of autumn came with a series of soft robotics events from exhibitions, talks and interviews in the heart of South Asia. The broad spectrum of dissemination activities around soft robotics projects, including SoftGrip, took place between October 28th and November 10th in various universities in Pakistan. Representing the SoftGrip consortium, Radan Pathan, a PhD researcher from The BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, participated in all those events spreading the word about the project's mission, our soft robotic grippers and the tech advancements so far.
So, let's take a look at some of the most important events of the tour. Starting from the 28th of October, soft robotics and SoftGrip were discussed in a TV interview on a morning show called Expresso on Express News hosted by Armala Hassan. Then, the next two days were dedicated to the Lahore Science Mela 2022, hosted by the Khwarizmi Science Society, Pakistan's biggest annual science festival since 2018. There, thousands of participants engaged with the presented soft robotics technologies, from government officials, university teachers, young and older students to industrialists, NGOs, and walk-in enthusiasts.
Photo with the faculty at the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (FAST-CFD)
Following that, more media exposure chances came in, with three talks at two universities, two talks at theFoundation for Advancement of Science and Technology (FAST) National University in Lahore and Faisalabad and one talk at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Moving on to more soft robotics travels, on November 4th, there was a meeting with government officials where a fruitful discussion about robotic advancements was conducted.
Photo with the faculty at LUMS, Lahore
Then, between November 7th and 10th, four more talks were given at UMT, NUST Islamabad, the International Symposium on Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Emerging Technologies at AIR University and the Institute of Space Technology.
Photo with the faculty at the COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus
Photo at Pakistan Industrial Technical Assistance Centre (PITAC, Lahore)
Photo with the faculty at the University of Management and Technology (UMT)
The fortnight of soft robotics in Pakistan helped our project reach officials, faculty members, students, researchers, and robotics enthusiasts in order to provide awareness regarding the research work around emerging technologies in Europe. So, it's safe to say that the future of soft robotics looks bright since the response was very positive and could lead to potential collaboration in publications. Therefore, the next steps will be to keep in contact with them to encourage students to conduct research in soft robotics, pursue training courses and Research Abroad programs, as well as become part of European labs.
Get a glimpse of the SoftGrip social media exposure from the tour around Pakistan:
➡️https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=537985974818148&ref=sharing
➡️https://www.facebook.com/FASTNULahore/posts/pfbid0Eypsy5NFcVENskrfs8cnyCfENsT4XdV5WFNDQQanyPBhCmR5PQtWYHZ1butC2vjpl
➡️https://www.facebook.com/Radan.Khan92/posts/pfbid02uZE4WCYziV1M37Xg1fZek8GWGHbR4ZnK5ANSkdUw3YAtA4oWRogkZ7F1TEYeHb9yl
➡️https://www.facebook.com/NICFaisalabad/posts/pfbid0v9WHgmcGdY3hNZTnxrFJs8dBRMnhtpgXagHeSmECL8VkgBdcUEXYdUZ7YTQMPK9el
Webinar:
SoftRobotics and SoftGrip- National University of Sciences and Technology Islamabad.mp4
