There is a major lack of diversity in engineering, technology, and computing subjects in higher education. The resulting underrepresentation of some population groups contributes largely to gender and ethnicity pay gaps and social disadvantages. We aim to increase the diversity among students in such subjects by investigating the use of interactive robots as a tool that can get prospective students from different backgrounds interested in robotics as their field of study. For that, we will survey existing solutions that have proven to be successful in engaging underrepresented groups with technical subjects in educational settings. Moreover, we examine two recent outreach events at the University of Hertfordshire against inclusivity criteria. Based on that, we suggest specific activities for higher education institutions that follow an inclusive approach using interactive robots to attract prospective students at open days and other outreach events. Our suggestions provide tangible actions that can be easily implemented by higher education institutions to make technical subjects more appealing to everyone and thereby tackle inequalities in student uptake.

翻译：高等教育中的工程、技术与计算机学科存在严重的多样性不足现象。部分人口群体的代表性缺失，加剧了性别与族裔间的薪酬差距及社会不公。本研究旨在通过探索交互式机器人的应用，吸引不同背景的潜在学生关注机器人技术领域，从而提升此类学科的学生多样性。为此，我们将梳理已被证实能有效引导教育场景中弱势群体接触理工学科的成功现有方案。同时，我们依据包容性标准对赫特福德大学近期两次外展活动进行评估。基于评估结果，我们提出面向高等教育机构的具体行动建议，强调在开放日及其他外展活动中采用包容性方法，借助交互式机器人吸引潜在学生。这些建议提供了可操作性强的具体举措，帮助高等教育机构让理工学科更具吸引力，从而消解学生选科中的不平等现象。