Technion’s Igor Podolsky Wins First Place in US Robotics Olympiad

28The engineer who chose to study Education in Science and Technology in the Views Program and teach at a special school

The Technion’s Department of Education in Science and Technology has done it again – its robot, Eddy, returned home from the US Robotics Olympiad with a gold medal and its operator, Igor Podolsky, was awarded another gold medal at the Robotics Knowledge Olympiad. Last year the Department’s delegation won the “Best Humanoid Robot” prize for the waiter robot it developed, and its members demonstrated it abilities before President Barak Obama during his last visit to Israel. Both projects were supervised by Prof. Igor Verner.

This time Igor Podolsky placed first on a special task that requires a walking robot to move along predefined routes. This was, indeed, a fine achievement, but Podolsky’s other accomplishments are even more deserving of elaboration. Despite graduating from the Technion’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and serving as an IDF officer in the Land Corps’ Experiments Unit, Podolsky decided to dedicate himself to teaching and to forego an enticing salary and various perks offered by the high-tech industry. To that end he is currently enrolled in the special Views Program, which was initiated by Prof. Orit Hazzan, Head of the Techion’s Department of Education in Science and Technology. In parallel to his studies, Podolsky has been working for the past two years at a unique high school that caters to children with attention and concentration difficulties. He is currently teaching mathematics and physics, and hopes to introduce robotics into the high school’s curriculum next year. Indeed, even during his military service years, Podolsky did not abandon his teaching vision and found the time to teach mathematics, physics, and English as a volunteer at a Ramle high school.

Education seems to flow through Podolsky’s veins. As a child, he immigrated from Russia to Israel with his family in 1990 and grew up in the town of Ma’alot. He graduated with honors from the electronics and computers track at the local high school and studied at the Technion in the IDF’s Academic Reserves program. When he completed his military service, Podolsky did not throw a knapsack over his back and go off trekking in South America, but rather returned to the school bench at the Technion.

“A friend told me about the Views program offered by the Department of Education in Science and Technology, which enables Technion graduates to earn another degree in technology and science education on full scholarship”, he recounts. “The program also includes a teaching certificate and can be completed in two years. Prof. Verner and I participated in the Robotics Olympiad at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut as part of this program”.

Why did you choose to go into teaching instead of going into the high-tech industry?

“That is still an option, but I enjoy teaching and it gives me a lot of satisfaction. It’s not easy, but it’s challenging”.

So you are doing this out of ideology?

“I consider it to be very important. It’s a challenge that is not for everyone. You need a lot of patience. Even my pupils sometimes ask me where I get the patience for them. They are great. One of my pupils might become a brilliant scientist one day, if he overcomes his learning disabilities. I hope to investigate, with Prof. Verner’s help, whether robots can help alleviate attention and concentration difficulties”.

At part of his studies in the Views program, Podolsky attends general courses on teaching, educational psychology, general teaching methods and skills, and specific methods for teaching his field of specialty, namely mechanics. “People don’t come to Views to improve their salary”, he smiles. “But it is pure pleasure. These studies are not regular Technion classes. There is a lot of openness, the study material is updated continuously, we meet with teachers and pupils and we try to find solutions to their problems. We have recently begun working with the rejuvenating Bosmat high school in Haifa. Contact was renewed with the school, and students from our Technion department go there to teach. The pupils also visit the Department’s technology lab with their teachers, where they do some practical work. Everyone has been talking recently about the importance of technological education. We actually implement it”.

Above: Igor Podolsky (right) with an American contestant at the Robotics Olympiad. Photograph by the Technion Spokesperson