Robot Making Miracles: A New Way to Celebrate Hanukkah

A Hanukkah special: High-Schoolers from Ort Bialik programmed a robotic trio at the Technion to perform traditional Hanukkah customs: serving doughnuts, pouring oil and lighting candles on the candelabra.

מימין לשמאל: ד”ר דן קופרמן מהמרכז לחינוך לרובוטיקה וטכנולוגיה דיגיטלית

At the Technion’s Center for Robotics and Digital Technology, a group of students figured out an original and special way to celebrate the holiday:  they developed humanoid robots capable of Hanukkah customs: serving doughnuts, pouring oil and lighting candles on the candelabra.

The project, mentored by the Director of the Center Dr. Dan Cuperman, was undertaken by a group of outstanding 10th graders in the science-engineering track at the Ort Bialik High School.

“Once a week we come to the Robotics Center at the Technion for robotics lessons that are about 1.5 hours in length,” said Mor Pikman, a student participating in the program. “The robots we built are programmed to respond to noise, and start operating upon the sound of three hand claps.” Another student, Kfir Lavie, adds, “As part of the program, we developed a special program that makes the robot light Hanukkah candles according to the right order, and then place the candle used for lighting at the spot of the ‘shamash’ (the “attendant” candle). For humans this is a simple task, but for a robot it is quite complex, and required hours of programming work until we were able to accomplish it in the best possible way.”

“The Robotics Center is a meeting place between high-schoolers and university students who are developing and advancing methods for technology education,” said Associate Prof. Igor Verner, the Head of the Center, and the Coordinator of Undergraduate Studies and Technology Education at Technion’s Department of Education in Science and Technology. “The goal of the Center is to teach youngsters about technology through the introduction of a robot. The students program and research the operations of a robot, and learn programming language at the Center. The movements of the robots they developed on their own, through studies they conducted
on a robot’s movement operations.”

Photo Credit: Sharon Tsur, The Technion’s Spokesperson’s Office

For more information: Gil Liner, 058-688-2208, Doron Shaham – 050-3109088