Yuxuan Li arrived in France three years ago. Originally from China, she is studying psychology at Université Paris Cité. As she has been unable to return to her country since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, she enrolled in the Summer School of the Learning Planet Institute in 2022. A great way to spend her summer, as Yuxuan is passionate about the projects she sets up at the MakerLab of the Learning Planet Institute. Meet us.
Yuxuan Li is waiting for me on a rainy afternoon in the MakerLab premises at Learning Planet Institute. «I'm here a lot, she smiles. Yuxuan is a 22-year-old Chinese student. Arriving in France in 2019, she is studying French language and psychology at - led by Université Paris Cité. «I was drawn to psychology by watching films like Inception for example. I know films can be biased, but anything to do with the unconscious or dreams fascinates me.» Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Yuxuan had the chance to return to China to see family and friends, but for the past three years she has been unable to do so. «It's very difficult, I'm sad I can't go home». On the Université Paris Cité website, she started looking for ways to learn new things and brighten up her summer of 2022. She came across the Summer School from Learning Planet Institute, She registers and is admitted.
«It sounded very interesting. Summer School a month-long project involving three partners: the University of Geneva, the’Tsinghua University and the Learning Planet Institute. » After learning French in full immersion since 2019, Yuxuan practices his English: «The Summer School was in English, I didn't speak it very well, so I had to improve.
The twenty or so students in the program have very different backgrounds. Some have studied science, others engineering in Austria, China or the United States. She was the only one to come from a psychology background, and began studying electronics, the game design or 3D printers.
«It's a very rich, multicultural environment, explains Yuxuan, who is clearly amazed - and, at the time, also a little impressed.
«The beginnings of Summer School, I'll remember it for the rest of my life.», she says. «I was sitting in the front row and Vladimir, one of the MakerLab fab managers, spoke to us. It really was like «The King's Speech». As I listened to him humorously tell us that we were going to be able to develop our projects and our dreams, I told myself that there really was room to deploy our potentials.» Yuxuan can't sleep at night. It's a revelation for her (a «aha moment» as the English say). «Vladimir taught us how to build the projects we dreamed of. He showed us that it was possible to build new things, or make existing things, at lower cost. He was a great inspiration to me.»
On certain days Summer School connect with students from the’University of Geneva, They learn in fields as diverse as chemistry, biology, engineering and health. At the same time, groups form to work on a project to be completed by the end of the month. Yuxuan, in keeping with her background in psychology, has chosen to work in the field of mental health.
«I was interested in emotional disorders, and in particular OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). These are disorders that patients are aware of and can get rid of, with help. The most common symptoms are washing and checking. Some patients can spend more than two hours in the morning in the bathroom. At the end of the day, their skin can be very damaged, they can also arrive late and so on. It's a handicap on a daily basis.»
Yuxuan decided to work on OCD. Supported by the Summer School that gives her momentum, but she's not moving fast enough for her liking. «Two weeks before the end of the Summer School, I still had nothing. I'm not at all scientific, and I wasn't very good at making things myself. Stress mounts, and Yuxuan learns to code just a few days before the end of the program. At D-2, all the other groups have their prototypes. Yuxuan still has nothing. «I was so stressed! And then I met Rajeev, who helped me a lot.»
Rajeev works at the Learning Planet Institute's MakerLab on subjects close to Yuxuan's. «I met him at the end of the Summer School but he was decisive. He was my technical and psychological support, , she smiles.
In one day (the afternoon and then the night before the end of the Summer School), Yuxuan builds a robot from scratch, with the help of Rajeev and another friend. «In the morning, I cried.» Of joy. It's the first time Yuxuan has cried in public, and she tells it like an initiation rite, a passage.« from young girl to young woman ».
Yuxuan's robot was created with the help of a laser printer. Inside, there's a map Arduino (map in open source, with a program which makes it easy to learn electronics) and remote sensors. Placed in a bathroom, Yuxuan's cat-shaped robot starts a timer when the person washes their hands, then emits a signal after 25 seconds.
At the end of the Summer School in July, the psychology student is determined to develop and improve her project. She really liked the MakerLab, where she feels at home and has made friends: «The environment is very pleasant here, the people are kind, encouraging and curious.»
After a few days' vacation, Yuxuan decides to show his prototype to a psychologist, who gives him advice on how to change the sound of his robot. «I read a lot of research articles and found one on the U-shaped sequence. At the beginning, the music is loud, then it decreases in the middle at the most relaxing moment, and finally it goes back up. I thought I'd use this principle to improve my robot.». Yuxuan discovers that this sequence is already used in over 500 hospitals in France.
«I applied it to my robot: I put stimulating music at the ends of the U, which brings to mind the sensation of cleanliness, and more relaxing music of the sound of fire in the middle, to bring to mind the sensation of warmth.»
As the robot improved over the months, Yuxuan decided to create a new cloud-shaped robot, LUMIAGE. It has a light sensor when the user enters the room, a screen and a self-programming function.
Yuxuan talks about her robots as if she had studied engineering for a long time. She became fascinated with Arduino technology during the Summer School, and teaches it in a toy library. « I'm a digital library mediator »she explains. In the 17th arrondissement of Paris, she gives weekly classes to teach the basics of Arduino to children aged 6 and adults. «I also work for the association as a toy librarian. »
And as Yuxuan has no intention of stopping there, she continues her studies in psychology, but creates bridges between what she does at MakerLab and her career path.
«I went to show my robot to the director of the Clinical Psychology and Psychopathology Master's program at my university. She really liked it. As Yuxuan explains, his robot can be an alternative or a good complement to drug treatments or sessions with a psychologist. «The director was pleasantly surprised and even told the director of La Licence about it, says a cheerful Yuxuan. A fine way of showing that her project is attracting interest. Since then, the Master's director has been helping the student to find two OCD psychologists in Paris. «What's interesting is that psychologists aren't necessarily very good at computers, so this can help them.»
Yuxuan has many development projects in mind, but remains very modest. «It's still a prototype, the robot is too big, I can improve it». So she's working on improving LUMIAGE and is looking to submit a proposal for a call for projects. And she's already got a third idea for a cat-robot to provide animal therapy for emotional disorders!
«For me, the Summer School is the beginning of the dream, and I'd like to thank everyone: Thank you Kevin, Alexandre, Vladimir, Rajeev.»
A portrait of Marie OLLIVIER
- Find out more about project of Yuxuan
- Find out more about Learning Planet Institute's SDG Summer School
- Find out more about 2022 projects of the SDG Summer School of the Learning Planet Institute
- Discover Rajeev's portrait
