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The Professional Association for Robotics and Automation (PARA) is recruiting participants for the third consecutive time for its educational program, PARA Robotics Incubator.

PARA Robotics Incubator is an incubator for robotics aimed at students and young professionals. The initiative selects projects from young people and helps them develop these projects to the “prototype” level.

Participants in the program will receive mentorship guidance, hardware, and access to specialized equipment in laboratories. The main goal of the program is for participants to create a working prototype based on a pre-designed project, thereby fostering entrepreneurship.

To enroll in the program, participants must be at least 14 years old and possess basic programming skills. Over the course of the six-month program, each participant is expected to complete their prototype. The projects encouraged should be focused on the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, and automation.

In the third season of the incubator, projects sought are those aimed at: drones, industrial solutions, machine vision and artificial intelligence, agriculture, technical solutions for sustainable living, and the Internet of Things.

The five selected projects from across Bulgaria will have the opportunity to receive:

– Hardware
– Access to a prototyping space
– Mentorship assistance
– An interactive educational program
– A chance to win a prize of 5000 leva

Desired skills for participants in the program:

– Motivated to develop in the field of technical sciences
– Have their own technical project or idea
– Open to receiving feedback
– Technical knowledge above the average level
– Want to develop their project into a working prototype

Program Modules
What will you learn?

Module 1: Design Thinking
Concepts for developing new products, applications, and innovations within teams

Module 2: Sales and Marketing
Models for reaching the end customer through commercial and advertising tools

Module 3: Collaboration
How people and robots can work together, an overview of methods for coordination, collaboration, and assigning tasks to robots

Module 4: Machine Vision and Machine Orientation
An overview of models and methods for detecting, tracking, and recognizing objects, as well as applying these models to solve problems in real-world environments

For the remaining modules, read HERE.

And here is some more information about the main stages of the program:

• The selection of teams will take place on April 6th this year during the special event Demo Day at The Venue in Sofia Tech Park. All teams will present their ideas there, and the jury will choose 5 projects to participate in the program.
• The educational program will start on April 7th and will run until September 26, 2024. It will include active work with lectures, participation in mentorship sessions, visits to laboratories, and various activities for project development.
• On September 26th, during the annual Robotics Strategy Forum, the final demonstration of the developments will take place. On that day, the winners of the third edition of the incubator will be announced and awarded.

More information about the program can be found on the official website of the PARA Robotics Incubator.