Making smartphones a tool for teaching digital skills to our teens #

This project aims to provide teens with mechatronics kits and a web platform that allows them to create their own applications to remotely control these kits directly from their smartphones. What makes this project unique is its ease of access: no prior installation is necessary, the applications are written in Python, and can be created and modified in real time from a mobile browser.

Teenagers’ problematic use of smartphones #

Teenagers’ relationship with their smartphones has become a real social issue, affecting not only families but also educators, institutions, and the wider community. Parents, in particular, are powerless spectators of their children’s excessive smartphone use and exposure to content that promotes addiction, cyberbullying, depression, radicalization, and more. This project is therefore primarily aimed at them, offering a constructive and engaging alternative: instead of passively enduring screens, young people are invited to become actors and creators by developing their own applications.

By transforming smartphones into tools for technological creation, this project captures the attention of teenagers and offers them a fun gateway to the digital world, far from the passive use of social media and video games, allowing them to acquire useful and even essential skills in both their personal and professional lives.

Project objectives #

Enable young people to learn about mechatronics and programming in a fun and accessible way.
Encourage creativity and independence by providing a lightweight integrated development environment with no installation requirements.
Offer a better understanding of digital technology in general by allowing teenagers to directly manipulate connected objects and interactive applications.
Provide an alternative to video games and social media on smartphones, allowing them to create their own content that can be easily shared with friends and family.

Key features #

Modular mechatronic kits including compatible sensors, actuators, and microcontrollers.
Innovative web platform based on open-source software, accessible from a smartphone, allowing users to write and test Python applications to control the kits directly from their smartphone.
Built-in application examples to guide teens through their first projects, accompanied by a programming coach, namely artificial intelligence that explains how the applications work and invites them to ask questions, allowing them to progress independently.
Platform that facilitates sharing, to improve and discover applications created by other users.
Kits available in the form of online simulations so that teens can continue their projects at home without needing access to physical kits.

This system aims to democratize access to mechatronics and application development by removing the technical barriers associated with installing software and relying on Python, a popular language known for being easy to learn.