Bringing Education to Life: STEM Career Interview with Robotical's Ben Henderson-Palmer

In this talk

1. 1:28

   Robotical and Marty in the classroom

   Edinburgh-based Robotical, founded in 2016 by robotics researcher Alexander Enoch, makes Marty for learners from kindergarten through eighth grade. Children can begin by coding responses to colors, then use sensors to make Marty react to its surroundings. Henderson-Palmer says the robot is sold in more than 50 countries, with most current sales in the US.

2. 3:22

   A varied route into a commercial role

   As chief commercial officer, Henderson-Palmer oversees business performance and contributes to company strategy as a board member. After studying law at the University of Aberdeen, he chose small-business roles to learn about different functions, starting with sales of reusable bags. He says that experience helped him build skills across business areas and left room for a future goal of running a company.

3. 11:45

   Robotics, jobs, and skills for the future

   Henderson-Palmer recalls that his schools taught office software rather than coding or robotics, and welcomes their growing place in education. He expects robots to support teachers and take on repetitive, difficult, or dangerous tasks. He is optimistic that technological change will create new jobs, and says curiosity about how things work matters alongside science, technology, engineering, and maths skills.

4. 19:13

   Making STEM welcoming and useful

   Henderson-Palmer says engineering remains predominantly male, though he has seen improvement, and that more work is needed to broaden participation. Introducing educational robots in primary school can engage children before they form strong ideas about which fields are meant for them. He also says nontechnical colleagues can bring customer perspectives into product decisions and help teams notice changing user needs.

5. 22:44

   What may come after Marty

   Robotical is currently on the second version of Marty, with each iteration shaped by lessons from the previous one. Henderson-Palmer expects this version to be the last Marty designed for primary schools. A future Robotical robot, if developed, may serve a different need and take a different form.