Dr. Jacob Nielsen
Associate Professor
Jacob Nielsen is Associate Professor and Head of the Game Development and Learning Technologies Education. He has a background in Robotics Engineering, and is doing currently doing research both on automated healthcare solutions as well as developing learning methods and materials for technology teaching in our school system.
He has helped put technology teaching on the current national agenda, both through his research at SDU, but also very much through his work as president of Teknologiskolen: a volunteer union that teaches technology to kids an youngsters to help them improve the creative technical and digital skills and prepare them better for their digital future.
Partnerships and collaborations
Publications
Research Interests
- Modular Robotics
- Software Methodology
- Edutainment Robotics
- Learning Robots
- User centered Design
- Experience Design
- Interaction Design
- Human-Robot Interaction
- Biorobotics
- Modern Artificial Intelligence
- Embodied Artificial Intelligence
Current projects
DiASper
DiASper is a collaborative project, between the German university IPN Kiel and the Danish university SDU, whose goal is to integrate the digital workplace into the public-school education. In other words, the focus of the project is to translate the demands of the modern digital workplace and integrate them in the learning context of education, for instance in classes such as math, physics, informatics, or technology understanding.
In English DiASper stands for ‘the digital workplace from the school’s perspective’ and the project contributes to orientate and prepare students a digital work life. The counterpart at SDU is responsible for the technological education, whereas IPN Kiel is responsible for the mathematical education. A good example is 3D printing that requires a combination of understanding both math and how this particular technology works.
To implement technology in education, both counterparts collaborate with local public schools in Southern Denmark and Slesvig-Holsten in Germany in order to ensure that digital competencies becomes a continuous aspect of their education instead of being limited to singular activities. The project is supported by EU’s Interreg-program 5a, which supports projects across countries with focus on labor market, employment and education.
Teaching
Current supervision Topic
- Visual and Physical Programming
- Technology education in the School System
Courses
Hardware og robotteknologi 2 (Hardware and robot technology) introduces the students to digital electronics and gives them fundamental understanding of circuitry and its components, enabling them to design digital circuitry both in theory and in practice.
Hardware og robotteknologi 3 (Hardware and robot technology) equips students with the tools to build robots and robotics prototypes for gaming or educational purposes. In addition, they learn theoretical and practical knowledge to develop software and algorithms for use in robots and embodied and tangible systems.
Social Technology Lab 1 and 3 strengthens the students’ creative and technical competences in the field of development of 3D computer games and simulations.
