Andrei Calapod

I grew up in Fabriano and studied computing and telecommunications. I started on the systems side, working with servers, networks, backups and virtualised environments, and over time moved further and further towards software and web product development.

In 2018 I also started working in schools. At first I mostly brought into the classroom what I knew from a technical point of view, but I soon realised that knowing how a technology works is not enough to teach it. A robot can be fascinating to me and leave a child almost indifferent if they have no reason to use it. From there I began working more and more on the opening question, on the narrative, on the relationship and on how an activity manages to draw the group in.

Over the years I have worked with educational robotics, coding, electronics, 3D modelling and printing, augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence and digital tools for teaching. Rather than collecting technologies, I am interested in how they can be made understandable and how they can become part of something people are able to use, build or tell.

That experience has also shaped the way I build software. When I design a management platform or an application I do not start from the technical requirements alone. I want to understand who will carry out a given action, why they will do it, what they already know and where they are likely to get lost. In the same way, when I design a school programme I do not start from the robot or the software I want to use, but from what I want the group to experience and understand.

I work as an independent professional and I recognise myself in a fairly hands-on way of building technology. I prefer to talk directly with the people who live with the problem, understand how it works today and follow the project myself until it is in use. I do not start from a product that has already been decided. I first work out what is needed and then design the form that suits it best, which can be a website, a management platform, a system with artificial intelligence or an educational programme.

SoleStorie also came out of the work in schools, an EdTech project that connects objects and materials built in class to digital content. It is one of the clearest points where the two parts of my path meet, because it comes from an educational need but calls for product design, software development and an understanding of what actually happens in a classroom.

I keep working in both fields because what I learn in one often ends up changing and improving the way I work in the other. Development makes me think about systems, processes and tools; training keeps reminding me that, in the end, those tools have to be understood and used by people.