In 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives passed resolution H.Res. 1055 to make the second week of April officially National Robotics Week. Now celebrating its eighth year, National Robotics Week is more national and more robotics-y than ever, with hundreds of events taking place all over the country.
We know that most of you live robotics every single day anyway (as you should), and so National Robotics Week might not seem like it’s worth celebrating, but what about your friends and family who have no idea how cool robots are, and who maybe have no idea what it is that you actually, you know, do? Fundamentally, NRW is all about celebrating how cool robotics is, and getting as many people involved as possible—think about finding an event near you that looks like fun, and then dragging someone along who doesn’t (yet) understand why robotics is the best thing ever. They’ll either thank you for it, or think you’re crazy, but it’s a win either way, right?
You can find out what’s going on at the National Robotics Week website, here. If you can’t find something near you, that just means that you need to start planning to host your own NRW event next year. And don’t forget, we’ve partnered with NRW to make a brand-new set of robot trading cards, which you can get here.
Evan Ackerman is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum. Since 2007, he has written over 6,000 articles on robotics and technology. He has a degree in Martian geology and is excellent at playing bagpipes.
Erico Guizzo is the Director of Digital Innovation at IEEE Spectrum, and cofounder of the IEEE Robots Guide, an award-winning interactive site about robotics. He oversees the operation, integration, and new feature development for all digital properties and platforms, including the Spectrum website, newsletters, CMS, editorial workflow systems, and analytics and AI tools. An IEEE Member, he is an electrical engineer by training and has a master’s degree in science writing from MIT.
