Consul-General of Japan visits ST SOLUTIONS

Our Australian team, Takero Izuhara , Anthony Curtin , Tao Lu , Jade Lay , and Hannah Bourke , alongside AI Ambassador Rita Arrigo and Associate Professor Andy Song (PhD) and from RMIT University, were honoured to meet the Consulate General of Japan, Junji Shimada, and his wife, Kaoru Shimada, at our WeWork office last month. Our team presented Pepper, a humanoid robot designed to work in collaboration with humans to create highly memorable experiences and innovative outcomes for the technological age, in addition to Keenbot, the service robot aiming to assist the hospitality industry and its current work shortage, along with Whiz, the autonomous vacuum.?

After welcoming our guests to our workspace and providing a brief explanation of Pepper’s features, our team presented an application, located on Pepper’s tablet, to explore how Pepper can be utilised as an effective tool for the connection of our local and global communities, the continuation of fostering positive Australia-Japan relations, and the further promotion of mutually beneficial cultural exchange, within the education, diplomacy, and service sectors.?

Pepper: The Perfect Language Learning Companion

A common theme that emerged from our presentation was Pepper’s outstanding skills and promising potential as an educational tool within the language learning environment. One element of the presentation displayed to our esteemed guests that one of Pepper’s current projects is acting as a teaching assistant within Italian classrooms at Glenferrie Primary School. By Pepper actively engaging with students through its slideshow function, which allows for imaginative storytelling and the teaching of relevant vocabulary and grammar, and the quiz function, that challenges the passionate learners to put their knowledge to the test, Pepper is the perfect language learning companion that effortlessly creates a highly engaging learning environment for both staff and students.?

The Consul General of Japan and his wife experienced this excitement first-hand through engaging with a small quiz that tested their knowledge on Italian greetings. After correctly guessing ‘ciao’ as the phrase for ‘hello’, Pepper gleefully congratulated them on their efforts, happy to gain two more language learning students.

Pepper: Beyond Borders

Following this demonstration of Pepper’s Italian competency, our team revealed to our visitors that Pepper could also be instrumental in developing connections between Australians and Japanese people through their shared passion for Japanese language, culture, and technology. Jade Lay presented our guests with an impressive display of Pepper’s abilities as not only a helpful Japanese language assistant, but also as a virtual diplomat. In an increasingly globalised world that is still experiencing the anxieties caused by COVID-19, recorded content of Pepper has the power to spread positive messages of hope, and promote intercultural exchange to a global audience without needing to travel or fear catching the virus.?

Our team at ST SOLUTIONS deeply appreciate the opportunity to share the strides we are making within the robotics sector with the Consul General of Japan and Ms. Shimada. We are excited to see the positive outcomes that will unfold from the current projects and future possibilities of ST SOLUTIONS, as well as welcome more joyous visits in the future.

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