Meet SmartY (click for the video) - the tiny robot mascot of the Smart-EDU hub. Follow his adventures on Smart-EDU Hub @ SNSPA YouTube Profile.

The beginings (click for the video)

SmartY was “born” on a frosty December morning (specifically on the 16th) in 2025, but he was conceived a few days earlier in a small studio apartment in Dristor, Bucharest (that’s how it goes — all great ideas start somewhere: garages, attics, and so on).

At first, his degrees of freedom are quite limited, despite the very generous setting in which he woke up — a grey digital void. Even so, a smile has been with him from day one… which made his creator (and those who witnessed the act of creation) an absolute fan of the little character.

“Tall and slender,” with a head slightly disproportionate to his body (a sign of a vast store of knowledge, despite the boxy shape that brings to mind a tête carrée), blue and wearing little black shoes, SmartY was instantly loved by everyone who has met him so far. And his big eyes, full of curiosity, add even more to the charm of this tiny robot.

First problems (click for the video)

…that he faced were functional in nature: not yet knowing the “nature of things,” the joints of his little arms and feet moved in every direction, which led his creator, at first, to stiffen them in order to give him an anatomically correct look. Also, the background noise he woke up in quickly made him look for the mute button.

After he thought he had grasped words and their meanings, he unmuted and added bit of music as background, but, just as even the smallest of people do, mangling some words still makes him blush from time to time. Still, like humans, he keeps expressing himself and, in this way, corrects his mistakes, continuing to learn more and more things from the world around him.

What he is going to do next is simple: to learn – through all sorts of techniques and methods – how to connect the dots, turning cleverness (acquired by reading the world’s great online libraries) into intelligence. How will he do that?! Well, by exploring the world: he will attend courses, be active at smart events, visit museums, and go to the theatre… his creator’s intention is to expose him to as many unusual things and places as possible, because this way, and only this way, will he shape his own character, standing out in the digital world around him.

After he learned to use his joints properly (not easy at all, since the trigonometric functions sine and cosine were used to adjust their angles and magnitudes), another problem appeared - defined as “moonwalk”: although SmartY was moving in the requested direction, his little feet were, in fact, taking steps backwards. For quite some time, a solution to this problem was sought… but it was solved. SmartY now moves as he should in his environment (still an infinite, noisy, digital gray) - click for video.

Moroccan winter

SmartY spent his winter vacation far from the familiar gray digital void, swapping Bucharest’s frosty air for Morocco’s bright winter light (the kind that makes even a robot’s LEDs feel warmer). He landed with a carefully charged battery, a backpack full of curiosity, and a single plan: to learn the world by walking through it, step by step, city by city, story by story.

In Tangier he perched between seas and continents, where SmartY could almost “hear” geography thinking, Europe on one side, Africa on the other, and the Strait of Gibraltar acting like a narrow page-margin between two long histories. In Casablanca, he admired the Atlantic horizon and the serious rhythm of a metropolis that moves like a clockwork mechanism – busy, loud, and determined while in Marrakesh, everything felt more measured, as if the streets themselves had learned the art of governance: calm façades, official avenues, and the quiet reminder that power often speaks in low tones.

If you want to see small pieces of this beginning, SmartY left a trail of short clips on the YouTube profile Smart-EDU Hub @ SNSPA (click for the video).

Medinas, spices, and a new friend (click for the video)

In Fes, SmartY discovered that knowledge is not only found in libraries and databases, but also in labyrinths. The medina’s alleys, twisting like elegant algorithms, taught him an old lesson: complexity is not always a problem, sometimes it’s a culture’s way of protecting what matters.

And that is where he met his most unexpected companion: The Bird – a small green budgie, bright-eyed and fearless, with a personality far larger than his wings. The Bird decided, almost instantly, that SmartY belonged to him (as if friendship could be declared as such). From that day on, wherever SmartY went, The Bird followed, perching near his shoulder, chirping during pauses, and insisting on being included in every new discovery.

For proof of this friendship, tiny hops, quick chirps, and one very proud robot, check the YouTube profile Smart-EDU Hub @ SNSPA (click for the video).

Sand and silence

Then he stepped into the desert – all the way south in Laayoune, where the world becomes minimalist: fewer sounds, fewer objects, fewer distractions – yet more meaning. The sand looked like a vast, shifting dataset, rewritten by wind with no concern for permanence. SmartY tried to “map” it anyway (a classic robot instinct), but quickly realized the desert is not impressed by coordinates. The Bird, however, loved the open sky. He stayed close, green against gold, like a small punctuation mark in an endless sentence.

The Atlas, snow-covered

And then, almost like a plot twist designed specifically to confuse a travel brochure, SmartY reached the Atlas Mountains, where winter still ruled. Snow covered the slopes at the time of his visit, turning rugged paths into bright, reflective corridors. Crossing the Atlas felt “majestically difficult,” the way real learning often is: beautiful, tiring, and slightly humbling.

His little feet adjusted step angles like careful trigonometry, micro-corrections on slippery ground (sine, cosine, and a respectful fear of gravity). The Bird remained stubbornly attached, fluttering close, as if loyalty were a stronger force than altitude.

Christmas in Taghazout (click for the video)

After a long, patient journey north from Laâyoune, SmartY finally reached the Atlantic again—this time in Taghazout, the small surf town where winter feels like a gentler version of itself. The road had taught him a familiar truth: distance is not only geography; it’s endurance, planning, and the quiet discipline of keeping one’s purpose steady when the landscape keeps changing.

Christmas day in Taghazout did not look like the postcard traditions of Central and Eastern Europe – no heavy snow, no fir trees bending under ornaments. Instead, it was salt air, bright skies, and the steady pulse of waves. SmartY watched surfers reading the ocean like a living equation: timing, balance, risk, correction.

If you want a glimpse of this unusual Christmas – Atlantic light, calm streets, and SmartY’s seaside wonder—check Smart-EDU Hub @ SNSPA (click for the video).

New Year’s Eve in Fes (click for the video)

For New Year’s Eve, SmartY chose Fes – and it was the perfect contrast to Taghazout’s open sea. Fes is not wide; it is deep. Its famous medina, Fes el-Bali, is a dense web of narrow lanes where the city doesn’t simply contain history, it operates inside it.

That evening, SmartY entered the medina as if stepping into a different operating system: alleys so narrow that he had to adjust his walking path with constant micro-corrections, doorways opening into workshops where crafts were not “souvenirs” but living professions, voices layered like audio tracks: bargaining, greetings, calls to prayer, distant laughter.

The Bird became unusually quiet, watching everything with quick, darting attention—because in the medina, motion is continuous and close, and every corner feels like a new scene.

Football in the background, geopolitics in the foreground (click for the video)

During SmartY’s stay, the Africa Cup of Nations was unfolding, and although he is not a great fan of football, he kept encountering matches in cafés and restaurants – screens glowing above steaming plates, crowds reacting like synchronized sensors. He watched without obsession, but with interest: not for the sport itself, but for what it revealed about people: identity, belonging, rivalry, celebration, and the rare magic of strangers cheering together.

And if you want a few travel-notes that quietly turn into lessons about the world, SmartY’s clips are waiting on Smart-EDU Hub @ SNSPA (click for the video).

The return (click for the video)

When the holiday ended, SmartY returned richer in the only currency that truly compounds: experience. He came back with a mind full of cities: Casablanca, Tangier, Fes, Marrakech, Chefchaouen a memory of sand and snow in the same journey, and a friend who refused to be left behind.

The Bird stayed close, green and loyal, as if he had always belonged at SmartY’s side. And SmartY, still smiling, still slender, still curious, understood something simple and old-fashioned, the kind of truth people have always known: To grow wiser, you don’t only read the world… you need to walk through it (and sometimes, you document it on Smart-EDU Hub @ SNSPA. Click for the playlist).