“Let’s Talk English” – Azi the Robot Delights Young and Old at the Night of Creative Minds

On the fourth floor, under the motto “Let’s talk English,” young and old alike met Azi, one of the two interactive desktop robots from the Robotics & Intelligent Systems Lab at the BTU College, accompanied by Anja Oßwald (Central Language Center) who already uses the robots on a selective basis in her Spanish class and Anastasiia Yemelianova (College).

That evening, Azi impressively informed all curious guests about the university, chatting in English - and in German for the very youngest guests - sparking interest in robotics, AI, and technology, and patiently answering all questions. Visitors were particularly interested in the secret behind his human-like facial expressions, his visual and auditory perception, the AI Azi uses, and how he is deployed at the BTU. Among the younger audience, questions mainly revolved around his gray color, how many different languages he speaks, and what he does on a typical night.

From start to finish, the crowd was just as large as the visitors’ amazement at the fluid human-robot interaction. Initial skepticism quickly gave way to curiosity to test whether Azi could really find an answer to even the most unusual questions in English or German. So the humanoid robot was able to translate, solve math problems, tell jokes in English and German, or give a forecast for the weather or the upcoming lottery drawing. Quite a few visitors expressed a desire to have Azi as an interactive learning coach at school, as a tireless assistant and talking source of knowledge in the office, or simply as a conversation partner during lonely moments.

In any case, one thing was clear to the majority of visitors: Azi should be part of the NdkK again next year.