Meet the robots teaching Singapore's kids tech

As many struggle to access mental health care, AI-powered chatbots, called “psychobots,” are emerging as a response to limited access to traditional psychotherapy. While they may not be a replacement for human connection, these chatbots offer affordable, convenient and anonymous psychological support, using techniques such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and advanced conversational AI algorithms to communicate.

Two Texas-based companies are 3D printing homes in an effort to combat the housing crisis and produce fewer emissions than a typical home construction. The companies lay the foundation and rebar for support. Then, a machine with a robotic arm builds up the walls by printing layers of a cement-like material.

Deaf Technology Foundation offers weekly activities to train Deaf students in programming, robotics, and other computer science skills. The sessions, which are taught using sign language, have served roughly 1,600 students so far.

El Busesito, which means “the little bus” in English, operates four retrofitted buses that provide bilingual preschool education on wheels for Latino immigrant families in five neighborhoods. The free early childhood education has improved developmental progress and school readiness for the nearly 100 children it serves. Valley Settlement, the nonprofit that runs El Busesito, also offers family engagement programs for the communities.

The free summer boot camp organized by the Dumena Foundation teaches young students how to build and design circuits and also educates them in tech fields like robotics, engineering, and programming. Since launching in 2019, the organization has trained over 3,000 students across 22 schools in the region in order to bridge the gap in tech education and get students on track for careers in the field.

Ready4K has turned into a successful combination of technology and education for the San Francisco Unified School District, and for many more schools and districts, after educators saw the effectiveness and accessibility of texting families instead of holding information-heavy workshops. Three times a week, families receive digestible information, tips, and activities to incorporate reading, math, and other topics into daily life. "The program is now used by nearly 130 organizations, including school districts, Head Start agencies, and national organizations."

To keep the doctor-patient contact at a minimum during the coronavirus pandemic, hospitals in China and Thailand are using human-like robots to perform basic medical tasks. The use of robots doesn't just help to keep doctors safer, it also helps to relieve them of their overburdened workload.

As companies look to stay economically viable and responsive to customers during the coronavirus pandemic, many are beginning to turn to automation as a way to fill jobs that would have humans working too closely together. From Amazon's cloud-based call center service to autonomous robots that can cook, the coronavirus crisis has created a pathway for technological advancements to be put to use.

The first of it's kind, a medical drone base has opened in Rwanda that aims to cut down the time it takes to deliver blood from blood banks to hospitals. Serving 21 rural health facilities throughout the region, the approach is also helping put Rwanda on the map as a technology hub.

Many people across the United State cannot eat unless assisted, but this often leads to feelings of losing independence. To combat this outcome, researchers have developed a robotic assistant that can assess a plate of food and accurately deliver the items to the individual's mouth.