TrimBot2020 launches animated short to encourage girls to get into STEM
Prof Bob Fisher, who leads the EC funded TrimBot 2020 project that delivered the world's first autonomous gardening robot would like more girls to study STEM. On the back of the project a video aimed at pre-school girls entitled ‘Ani’s Year in the Garden’ was commissioned.
Inspired by the real-life pioneering computer vision research project TrimBot2020, the film tells the story of a young girl Ani, her computer scientist mum and her new robot GR8. With the help of her mum, Ani learns, through pictures, how to create code for GR8, that enables him to tend to the garden and even cut hedges into the shape of dinosaurs.
The film combines live-action with simple AR effects and animation. The idea to create this film came from the project’s director Robert Fisher, and was based on insight from a recent Microsoft report which highlighted the importance of storytelling and positive role models in encouraging girls to think about careers in STEM from an early age.
It is extremely important that everyone in the scientific community takes action to close the gender gap in STEM.
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