EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL ROBOT, DESIGN FOR THE FUTURE C. Rioja Del Río 1 , F. Leon Zacarias 1 , A. Morgado Estévez 1 , J.L. Rodríguez Aparicio 1 , J. Maekioe 2 , T. Mäkelä 3 1 University of Cádiz (SPAIN) 2 hs emden leer (GERMANY) 3 JYU (FINLAND) Abstract Today there is a huge gap in students' interest in STEM related subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Faced with this latent need, educational robotics is postulated as a means to bring these young people closer to technical-scientific knowledge. There are several types of robot and educational robotic kits on the market but they still fail to keep up with society and implement a teaching methodology that is attractive to young people. Facing this challenge, the HORIZON2020 STIMEY project is presented, in which a robot will be developed to meet these needs and increase students' motivation for technical careers. This motivation depends on several factors including form and capacity for interaction. Based on these factors the need arises to evaluate how a robot can generate emotions found in a student. Perhaps they can associate a human form with a person with authority to fear, or perhaps they can expect a completely human interaction and not find it rejection generator however elaborate and complex it may be. On the contrary, it may be that a robot with forms that are more neutral but with a greater capacity for interaction with the user generates a bond with a stronger bond when being associated as a companion or a mascot. This article aims to study and analyse the different types of reactions that a young person can experience when first encountering a robot. Based on a research it is intended to enhance the physical and functional characteristics of the educational robot mentor who can teach in an attractive and fun way in an underlying way. Technological design, pedagogical approach, colour combination, materials, voice recognition, humanoid or non-humanoid form, sensory and cognitive response, and some other aspects will be addressed in this paper. Keywords: Education, Design, Robots. 1 INTRODUCTION Robotics has become a crucial component of the production industry since the middle of the 20th century, and it’s a field that keeps growing and in fact it’s quite advanced compared to other robotic applications for domestic environments, personal use and those involving a close interaction between robots and humans in daily use and personal development [1], specifically in education where the use of robotics and new technologies has been increasing exorbitantly, and there’s no indication of a change in trend. Based on recent researches, a gap referring to robots acceptance by humans does exist and it’s most remarkable when talking about people sharing their daily life with robots. Nowadays we are living on a time that everything is technology dependant, interrelated with it, between users and with the whole world. Furthermore, it's a time when people use to express their feelings about life and emotions through technology, forging a narrow relation between their life perception and the latest advances in technology. Regarding robotics and all the mentioned above, that makes several questions come up: What do we know about how robots are perceived?, What kind of interaction is the most desirable between humans and robots? Are there any features of the robotic machines that could reduce this gap in acceptance? All these questions can be solved by applying the concept of social interaction between humans and machines, or how is it called, Human-Computer-Interaction, onwards it will be referred as HMI. On one hand, regarding social interaction, it has been demonstrated that the use of human-like features in robots for social interaction with people or even with other robots can facilitate our social Proceedings of EDULEARN17 Conference 3rd-5th July 2017, Barcelona, Spain ISBN: 978-84-697-3777-4 9912