Tag Archives: Rodrigo Arboleda

Robotics Summer Camp at Phillis Wheatley Elementary School

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Captura de pantalla 2014-08-25 10.18.21

 

from the original post at the Miami Herald

…Q. Why are you starting a robotics program for kids?

A. At MAKO, we had over 100 engineers and were doing all these H1 Visas. It didn’t make sense to me why there weren’t more American engineers coming out from the education system that can contribute directly. I started working with a lot of the schools and universities here. For the United States to continue to be strong, we need more engineers to innovate. The data were showing where you can have the largest impact on influencing directionally is to get more middle school students excited about engineering. We’ve supported various efforts over the last five years in inner-city schools. It has been rewarding, but I felt we weren’t moving fast enough and struggled with how to measure success and how to scale. So this year we took on a different approach.

We brought in experts in various disciplines and embarked on a one-year pilot to take the concept to the next level. So we put together a really unique curriculum where we brought in a Stanford University professor, Ken Salisbury, and the kids got a virtual tour of one of the best biorobotics labs in the world. We had them build robotic arms, similar to what we did at MAKO, and we had a whole curriculum around anatomy and physiology. Once they built it, we showed them how these are being used, we brought them to Larkin Hospital, where they met a renowned orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Carlos Lavernia. They saw how the robotics arms were being used in medicine. We brought them to the Stryker-MAKO facility, where they met engineers, including engineers that came out of their neighborhoods and are great role models. What really got them excited was a visit from One Laptop Per Child’s CEO Rodrigo Arboleda. His research has shown that when you give a laptop, the logical thing to do is build things on it, and the process develops kids’ creative thinking.

Now we are looking at how we can implement this within schools starting in South Florida. We are bringing into the process art and creativity, we had Pharrell talk to these kids. We are going to follow and mentor these 20 kids for the next few years and bring in more kids. We’ll see where this goes, but we are very excited about it. We had a staff of 15 people working on this project over the summer with all the right disciplines in place.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/08/24/4304536/qa-with-maurice-ferre-whats-next.html#storylink=cpy

 

TEDxMiami – Be the difference – Oct 24, 2013

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This year, TEDxMiami’s fourth annual Fall Conference celebrates the power of innovation and different viewpoints which innovators bring to longstanding problems. Our speakers will provoke you to Live Differently, Work Differently, Play Differently, Learn Differently, and most importantly, to Be the Difference.

Be part of a catalyst moment for Miami
With more speaking applications received than ever before, Miami is certainly bursting at the seams with innovative and disruptive ideas. With the platform set, we can help take these ideas worth spreading and continue supporting them to the next level.  Join us for a night of connection, inspiration and action!

When:  Thursday, 24 October 2013 - Doors open 6:00PM, Event 7:00PM to 10:00PM
Where:  Adrienne Arsht Center - 1300 Biscayne Blvd. Miami, FL 33132
Tickets: Purchase your tickets here (Tickets are General Admission) SOLD OUT

The networking reception is at the Knight Concert Hall Lobby from 6-7pm. Doors to the auditorium open at 6:30pm. Concessions are available throughout the evening however, food is not allowed in the auditorium. Mingle with attendees at the after-party immediately following the event in the lobby.

Speaker Line-Up (revealed thus far)

  • Rodrigo Arboleda – One Laptop per Child, Revisited
  • Risa Berrin – Health Information Project
  • Richard Weiner – The Virtues of Gossip
  • Anabelle K. Paulino – A Modern Twist on an Ancient Memory Technique
  • John E. Lewis, Ph.D – A Solution for Your Health Care is Ringing. Will You Answer the Call?
  • Fernando Fabre – Creating An (Entrepreneurial) Mafia
  • Frankie Ruiz – Running to Join a Miami Movement

– @GoogleTalks features Rodrigo Arboleda

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Rodrigo Arboleda, the CEO of One Laptop Per Child, tells the success story of how one laptop has revolutionized education through “non-profit entrepreneurship” and unveils its new Android tablet that will be available for sale in US Walmart stores – the 1st time OLPC goods are sold in America – in summer 2013.

Rodrigo Arboleda Halaby is currently Chairman and CEO, for One Laptop per Child Association and based in Miami, Florida. Born in Medellin, Colombia, he completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1965 and was elected president of the Colombian Society of Architects in Medellín in 1975. He has worked with Nicholas Negroponte since 1982 on projects oriented towards bringing digital age technologies to educational systems in developing nations.

Proceeds of Joe Kutchera’s upcoming book, Exito! will be donated to OLPC. You can view his talk here.

Learning how to learn – Rodrigo Arboleda at TEDxCMU

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Rodrigo Arboleda is Chairman and CEO of One Laptop Per Child Association (OLPCA), a not-for-profit entity seeking to provide equal opportunity of access to knowledge to small children in Developing Nations and in some communities within the USA. OLPCA’s mission focuses on socio-economic and cultural change via education, with primary interest in children of 3 years and up. Arboleda is in charge of worldwide operational issues related to the project. More than 2,700,000 laptops have been distributed so far to children in 41 countries and in 21 languages including many indigenous languages. Arboleda has been also a Visiting Scholar at the Media Lab of MIT, where he worked on the Digital Nations Consortium project and on the Education for Peace initiative, E4P. He has served also as a Board Member of the 2B1 Foundation, which made possible some of the projects developed at the Media Lab. He was born in Medellin, Colombia and completed his Bachelor Degree in Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in 1965.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

Kids from Fundación Pies Descalzos share their experiences with the XO Laptop at TEDx Bogota

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Translation from the original post from Fundación Pies Descalzos.

Rodrigo Arboleda, CEO of One Laptop per Child Association, was invited to present at TEDx Bogota in December 2012. The theme of TEDx Bogota conference was “Del dicho al hecho”.

As a part of his presentation, Mr. Arboleda invited children from Fundación Pies Descalzos to present their experiences with OLPC. Fundación Pies Descalzos has worked closely with One Laptop per Child for four years through the College Heights Foundation Cazucá (Soacha) located in Barranquilla and Pretoria. The College Heights Foundation Cazucá has started an educational project that aims for every child to have his or her own inexpensive, green XO laptop and Internet connection. With these tools, users are able to have full access to information, which in turn fosters innovation, creativity and knowledge.

Approximately 200 students from the College Heights Foundation from the third, fourth and fifth grades have extensive experience in using the XO laptop. In presenting at the TEDx Bogota conference, the children showed the audience their skills in working with the laptop. The children also explained to participants at the OLPC booth, all the benefits and changes in the social environment they have witnessed through the use of the XO laptop.

Through the OLPC project, Fundación Pies Descalzos is working to reach its related goals of using innovative methods in the classroom and strengthening teachers’ efforts in the classroom.

CEO of One Laptop per Child received award “Los 100 Colombianos” from President of Colombia

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Rodrigo Arboleda honored as 2012 “100 Colombians”

Photo: Kien&Ke

Rodrigo Arboleda, Chairman and CEO of One Laptop per Child
Association) was honored last Wednesday December 5, in a ceremony presided over by President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia as a 2012 recipient of the “100 Colombians”.

President Juan Manuel Santos

The award annually recognizes Colombian-born individuals living outside Colombia for their exceptional contribution to the country and the world. Arboleda was recognized for his leadership of OLPC and for his thirty year effort to introduce IT technology in the schools in Colombia, his birthplace.

Arboleda’s first project in IT technology for Colombian children began in 1982 when he convinced then President Belisario Betancur to introduce an online learning platform developed by his classmate Nicholas Negroponte and the French government.

Rodrigo Arboleda, Nicholas Negroponte, Alfonso Ospina

In 2008 Arboleda worked with then Minister of Defense Santos to launch an OLPC 1:1 learning project in a previously FARC guerrilla controlled part of Colombia. Today through his efforts there are over 30,000 OLPC laptops in use by children across Colombia, most
recently in the town of Itagui, Antioquia, and new projects with government, non-profit
and private sector organizations are being added monthly.

Itagüi

Arboleda is also a founding member of the Give To Colombia Foundation, and an active member of their Board of Directors. He was, for 6 years, a member of the board of Trustees of Save The Children Foundation, one of the largest charities in the world.

“I have worked tirelessly for my native Colombia to improve the quality of children’s
education and the support of so many organizations has been instrumental to this
success” said Arboleda. “I am honored to be recognized for my efforts and for President
Santos’s involvement in this event. I look forward to giving back to my native Colombia
for many more years to come”, said Arboleda.