Louisville high school STEM program adds a ‘social robot’ to its fleet – Yurika.R

By Addie Meiners

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    LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WLKY) — Central High School has added a second robot to its fleet of STEM learning tools.

The robot, whom the students have named Ryan, is a pepper robot. It can move, dance, and answer questions when properly programmed. But, students like freshman Adrianna Duncan said they haven’t been able to code all of that just yet.

“It takes patience and perseverance. You definitely have to take your time with her, because the second that you think you get something accomplished, sometimes it doesn’t work out,” Duncan said.

Regardless, Jim Gilbert, the STEM teacher at Central, said students have already learned advanced coding to get the robot working. While they continue to learn more about coding the robot, they’re actually preparing themselves for their future careers.

“A lot of folks ask me, is that robot going to take my job? And you know what? In some cases, it might. I need my kids to be on the right side of that equation. I don’t need them to be replaced by anything. I need them to create, to program,” Gilbert said. “Whenever you get industry standard equipment in the classroom, that just prepares students for that industry.”

The robot is the second that Central has to learn with now. The magnet school purchased a manufacturing robot in 2022.

All 150 students in Central’s STEM Magnet will get to work with Ryan.

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