With schools now being closed, it means that for some students, they will be missing out on being able to attend one of the biggest milestones in their lives, which is graduating from school. However, it seems that Japan’s love for robots has paid off because at the Business Breakthrough University in Tokyo, robots were used as avatars by students to allow them to attend their graduation ceremony virtually.
According to one student, Kazuki Tamura, “I think this is truly a novel experience to receive a certificate in a public area while I am in a private space.” Interestingly enough, this is actually not the first time a graduation ceremony has been held virtually in Japan due to the coronavirus outbreak. Earlier last month, we reported that an elementary school held its graduation ceremony in Minecraft where students attended by showing up as virtual avatars in the game.
The robots used in this graduation ceremony were created by ANA Holdings and are known as “Newme”. They were also given graduation caps and gowns that they wore to represent the students that were graduating. The robots also had tablets which displayed the faces of the students.
It is no doubt an interesting approach and one that the university is hoping other schools will adopt in this time of crisis to help curb unnecessary mass gatherings.
Filed in . Read more about Coronavirus, Covid-19, Education and Japan. Source: reuters