Valeria Cagnina
Docente
It’s me, Valeria Cagnina, born in 2001, who has always been passionate about robotics and technology. I am Co-Founder of the school and Mentor.
Born in 2001, my story began at Coderdojo Milano at the age of 11 when I saw a simple digital plant made with Arduino that I immediately fell in love with. I decide to buy an Arduino kit and, in a very short time, after having realized the initial projects, following and modifying the videos of Youtube, at the time only in English, I realize my first robot able to move avoiding obstacles. I write the Terza Media essay using Facebook and interviewing Luca Parmitano while he was in space, demonstrating how the network can also be used by children in an intelligent way.
This is how an unstoppable succession of events and projects begins for me: at the age of 14 I was a speaker at the TEDxMilanoWomen, at the CNR in Pisa, at the Senate of the Republic and at the opening conference of the Maker Faire Rome 2015 in the Aula Magna della Sapienza with my speech ‘The World I Want’ where I analyze the network from the point of view of links.
When I was 15 I spent my summer at MIT in Boston at the Department of Robotics, in the Duckietown class as a senior tester. My task is to build an autonomous robot able to move by itself within a simulated city, on the model of Google Car, following the university tutorials, improving and simplifying them to make them usable also by high school students and extend the project.
When I was 16 I started my school and I started teaching robotics and tech to children from 3 years old. My courses extend quickly: children, teenagers, up to adults and teachers to whom I pass on my educational method developed in Boston where education as we understand it is already considered obsolete. I teach teachers how to apply this teaching method in class and replicate it.
I often organize corporate team building in small, medium and large companies like Cisco and IBM. I often participate in international events and fairs in Italy, Europe and the USA. From the ETH Zurich, the Polytechnic, to that of Lausanne, the EPFL, the quotation among the 100 most influential women in Italy in digital, the award as Tecnovisionaria at the University of Pisa.
Today, at 17, I continue to expand my school, I work with structured paths and events in public and private schools, I organize demonstrations around the world, I show my robots, I hold workshops and laboratories and I use robotics that is my passion to help the Dreamers to be curious, to discover and cultivate their passions: do what you love and you will not work a single day of your life!
I’m not NERD: I’m passionate about traveling, rhythmic gymnastics, origami, animation, creative work and looking after my garden.