Episode 513: Robot Friends: Tools to Solve Problems

Robots are revolutionizing K-12 classrooms—enhancing STEM learning, automating tasks, and sparking innovation! Join us in conversation with Robert Kraushaar and Tyler Kinner to learn more.

TRANSCRIPT

Ashley Mengwasser: Greetings Educators. I'm Ashley Mengwasser, your host. This is Classroom Conversations. I think I prefer doing the intro as myself. Welcome back to our Teacher Talk series, the platform for Georgia's teachers from the Georgia Department of Education and Georgia Public Broadcasting. This is Classroom Conversations. Without a robot voice, allow me to present an episode about robots as part of our collection on computer science leadership. Let's approach this complex topic the best way I know how, with social media. In 2023, a TikTok trend emerged of people pretending to be robots. These creators entranced the internet as they'd emote, speak, and react to comments for hours for profit with robotic speech and non-playable character movements. It would appear that robots are sharing the stage with the STEM collective's other current fascination, AI. It's all part amazement with the capability of these tech triumphs, and part the verisimilitude of them, right? As more and more robots trend human with each update, we have a lot to learn from our roboticists out there. The people who research, design, program, and experiment with robots. Let's not forget that these designs have a practical purpose first. Okay? Robots are here advancing critical industries like research, manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, and I want to explore today the very real practical supports that robots can provide in a classroom environment. Today's episode centers on Robot Friends, compact, yet larger than life gadgets that propel K-12 education farther. These robots aren't friends like C-3PO, or WALL-E as featured in films, but friendly tools for teachers. Accomplices in your mastermind plot for total instruction. Both of my guests work with robots in their careers in education outreach. Robert Kraushaar, a former middle school teacher, retired in 2018 with 40 years as an educator, and now he's part-time educational outreach manager for Georgia Tech's CEISMC, an acronym which stands for Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing. And Tyler Kinner is a research scientist working for Georgia Tech's Research Institute, or GTRI in education outreach. Both have taught we determined, in Gwinnett County before, which is where I grew up. So, an interesting correlation. I'd like to welcome to the show Robert and Tyler. Hi, gentlemen.

Tyler Kinner: Hi, Ashley.

Ashley Mengwasser: How are you today?

Robert Kraushaar: I'm great.

Ashley Mengwasser: You don't look robotic at all. This bodes well for me because I was worried you'd show up as robots. How did you guys get interested in robots to begin with? Would you like to start us off with this, Robert?

Robert Kraushaar: I got interested in robots back in probably late-1990s when I was teaching, and it seemed to me at the time when I was introduced to a robot that it was something I could use to educate the kids, get them interested, etc.

Ashley Mengwasser: And you were right. And where does your interest in tech come from, back from childhood?

Robert Kraushaar: Pretty much from childhood. My dad was a world-class physicist, and he always had something around the house or in the basement that I could tinker with.

Ashley Mengwasser: Something piquing the interest, we have him to thank. What about you, Tyler? Where does your interest in STEM and robotics come from?

Tyler Kinner: I started off my career as a science guy and teaching high school science, and it really wasn't until I started working at Tech that I discovered all of the ways that robots help scientists do their work. And so that's really fascinated me because I remember being back in the lab and the joys of trying to transfer the same amount of liquid 50 times over. I would much rather a robot do that than myself.

Ashley Mengwasser: Good point. You said a science guy, not the science guy.

Tyler Kinner: Yeah, not the science guy.

Ashley Mengwasser: That name's taken, right?

Tyler Kinner: Trademarked.

Ashley Mengwasser: Bill Nye, right? I have my fist in the air celebrating him right now. All right. Would you each take us through what you're doing, in terms of robots and education outreach for K through 12? Let's start with how that's coming up in your work, Tyler, at GTRI?

Tyler Kinner: Yes, so my work at GTRI and specifically in the STEM at GTRI team, we've got a few different avenues. Perhaps our oldest is called the Direct Discovery Program, which is our remote learning and outreach program focused on connecting Georgia's classrooms with the STEM expertise, all of the really cool stuff happening at Georgia Tech and at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. And so I've had the privilege of moderating sessions with classrooms with roboticists at GTRI, doing really cool stuff. Think about Georgia's poultry industry and all of poultry-

Ashley Mengwasser: Poultry, like chicken?

Tyler Kinner: Poultry, like chickens, right, yeah. So you wouldn't think of it, poultry and robots, but there's a lot of work happening at GTRI's Ag Tech research program where they're using robots to help solve some of the issues that they're facing in chicken houses for the poultry industry. So they've got this really cool AI enabled, if I understand correctly, a robot that helps to go around on the chicken coop floor and pick up eggs. And so the joy of my work at GTRI is, oh, okay, cool, now let's take this really awesome invention and let's show it to teachers and students. That way they can get inspired about how they can design robots to solve problems in their lives and in their communities and their schools, whatnot. Another great project is with the Georgia Tech Robotarium, which is led by Dr. Sean Wilson.

Ashley Mengwasser: Robotarium.

Tyler Kinner: Robotarium, I believe, aquarium-

Ashley Mengwasser: Planetarium-

Tyler Kinner: Planetarium.

Ashley Mengwasser: ... for robots?

Tyler Kinner: There's some Latin root words at play here, but yeah, the Robotarium. So you can think about it as, I liken it to a big air hockey table on the floor in one of the buildings here on campus, or there on campus, I should say. And it's got 20 or so odd robots that users can deploy code to from all over the world, and it's studied-

Ashley Mengwasser: It's remote?

Tyler Kinner: It's remote, remotely accessible. And that's the point is that it's remotely accessible hardware. So no matter where you're at, if you want to learn how to control a team of robots instead of just one single robot, you can do that by using the Robotarium. So it's this great open source, open access R&D resource on campus. But Sean and I together have worked alongside some fantastic student researchers to develop a block coding interface. If you're an educator listening to this, I'm going to surmise, you know what block coding is? And so-

Ashley Mengwasser: We've talked about it on this podcast before.

Tyler Kinner: I'm sure you have. So you could imagine using something like Scratch, but instead of programming the Cat to do cool tricks, which of course is wonderful in and out of itself, you could program a dozen or so robots to do some cool task on the Robotarium testbed.

Ashley Mengwasser: Amazing.

Tyler Kinner: Yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: And I know you said you didn't know the connection. We would think there were no connection between robots and chickens. But isn't there a robot chicken character out there?

Tyler Kinner: I would imagine so.

Ashley Mengwasser: I think I've seen this. I'm going to dig deeper.

Tyler Kinner: Chick-fil-A will invent it if they haven't already.

Ashley Mengwasser: They need it. They do have the delivery robots, which I keep talking about on these episodes because I'm really invested in this. Thank you for talking to us about the Robotarium. Okay, Robert Kraushaar, tell me about, you're our Lego guy, FIRST Lego League. What is it and what are you doing with that?

Robert Kraushaar: FIRST Lego League is a program that was developed by Dean Kamen, who is, he invented the... What was that?

Ashley Mengwasser: Word association. We can help. Tyler? We'll figure it out.

Robert Kraushaar: Yeah, the segway.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, yes.

Robert Kraushaar: And it was his opinion that colleges in America were not turning out enough engineers. So he decided to do something about that and thought that planting a seed as early as possible in education would get kids interested in engineering. So what he did is he developed a multi-level series of competitions, starting preschool and ending up in high school. There is the FIRST Lego League Discover, which is preschool.

Ashley Mengwasser: All right.

Robert Kraushaar: There's FIRST Lego League Explore, which is early elementary school. And then upper elementary and middle school is FIRST Lego league Challenge. And First Tech Challenge is lower high school, and FIRST Robotics is upper level high school.

Ashley Mengwasser: Beyond that. So we're engaging all the ages, all the students, whatever their level is in education, can engage a FIRST Lego league. What is the competition

Robert Kraushaar: With FIRST Lego League challenge, the competition is set up each year there's a different one. A challenge is issued, and what the students are supposed to do is research that particular challenge, which in this upcoming season starting in August is going to be undersea and it's wide open.

Ashley Mengwasser: Undersea.

Robert Kraushaar: Yeah, underwater in the ocean.

Ashley Mengwasser: All right. So anything pertaining to that would pass?

Robert Kraushaar: Pretty much, yes. It's wide open, it allows the kids to, what they have to do is identify what they think is a problem. And what they then do is they research that and see if they can come up with a solution to that problem. And they can go, and they are encouraged to find an expert in the field in order to help them along. So FIRST Lego league, it starts out with this research project, but they also have a series of missions that they need to design and program a robot to complete on a four by eight foot board. And what happens is they go and build, they have to design a robot, they build it, they program it, and then they have that robot go and complete missions on the board.

Ashley Mengwasser: That sounds really cool. And you said there are some obstacles on the board?

Robert Kraushaar: There are as many as 14 different Lego structures. And by the way, the robot has to be built out of Legos as well.

Ashley Mengwasser: Naturally. This is a Lego League, yes.

Robert Kraushaar: Yes, and so the robot either goes and takes something out to the board or it goes collect something off the board, or it goes and activates something on one of the structures out there.

Ashley Mengwasser: And winners are named at the end of this process?

Robert Kraushaar: Yep, depending on how many of the mission items are completed and how well they're completed, there's a score that is determined and whoever gets the highest score gets the most points.

Ashley Mengwasser: This fascinates me, because I think we've all played with Legos before, but I don't think many of us has made a dynamic Lego construction, something that actually acts and moves and interacts. So we're going to come back to FIRST Lego League later, but to set up more about our discussion of robots, does either of you have a favorite current robot trend?

Tyler Kinner: I think it's fascinating, you mentioned earlier AI, right? The acceleration of AI, and of course that's built upon decades and decades of research but the integration of AI within robots. And of course, I think when we say that, people probably think of iRobot and a robot that behaves like a human, but there's a lot of other AI other than generalized artificial intelligence, right? The AI that would look and talk and be more human, and so even simple things like if you've got a robot arm that just has AI enabled computer vision.

Ashley Mengwasser: Good point.

Tyler Kinner: They can do a lot of things just by having a webcam attached to them and being able to automate some of their work.

Ashley Mengwasser: And it's just an arm, to your point.

Tyler Kinner: It's just an arm, yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's still a robot. What about you?

Tyler Kinner: That one cannot take over the world.

Ashley Mengwasser: No, it can't. But if we were just a leg, you would get a leg up. So there's that. Robert, favorite trends, please, sir?

Robert Kraushaar: Tyler stole my trend.

Tyler Kinner: Oh, no.

Ashley Mengwasser: Did he? Oh gosh. I'm sure we can think of another one.

Robert Kraushaar: The robots that are being currently used in agriculture.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, yes.

Robert Kraushaar: Many of them planting and weeding and to a certain extent, harvesting. But one of the things they are not good at yet, which is what I'm hoping that they're going to do, is to be able to determine the difference between a ripe and an unripe. So pick the ripe ones, but let the unripe ones continue to grow.

Ashley Mengwasser: Continue to grow, yeah. Oh, that's so interesting. Thank you, robots, working on our food source. I really appreciate that firsthand. Can either of you share a surprising fact about robots? What does our general audience of educators maybe not know about them?

Robert Kraushaar: The Raptor robot can run by pedal, two legs, can run faster, twice as fast as the best sprinter in the world.

Ashley Mengwasser: Twice as fast.

Robert Kraushaar: Twice as fast.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's serious business. We've all seen that one, I think in videos. Tyler, do you have a-

Tyler Kinner: Yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: ... fun fact about robots?

Tyler Kinner: Not necessarily a fun fact, but maybe a fun type of robot that people don't normally think of, which is soft robotics.

Ashley Mengwasser: Tell me about this.

Tyler Kinner: Soft robotics, like to Robert's point, thinking about, how do you pick a fruit? The robot, of course needs to know that the fruit is ripe, but then also if you're picking it for consumption, you have a mechanical robot hand. If it squishes the fruit, you have a problem.

Ashley Mengwasser: It's fragile, you have a problem.

Tyler Kinner: And soft robotics, and there's so many areas that they can be used in, but produce picking could be one because they are, as the word implies, soft. They've got gel hands or gel mechanisms or anything that's softer. And so it's a really cool intersection of material science and engineering and robotics. And I'm a chemist by training, and so that one really speaks to me because I see the chemistry in it as they design these cool polymers to do this work.

Ashley Mengwasser: The cool polymers. Well, I think that's an interesting point. We think of robots as quick force, efficient, but they can also be soft and diligent. That's really interesting. Have you seen a robot do something truly amazing? You guys are exposed to robots much more than me in my line of work.

Tyler Kinner: So, I'll bring up one project that I've seen at my time at Georgia Tech. Again, this Ag tech research program, they do really cool stuff. One thing is a robot designed to pick peaches and not necessarily for harvest, but peaches, apples, right? They need to be thinned from the tree because if you don't thin them, then you end up with 30 meh quality peaches versus 10 really good peaches. And I don't know agriculture, I don't really know how many peaches a tree produces, but something like that. And so this robot can help thin the peaches just by using computer vision and a mechanism to pull it off of the tree.

Ashley Mengwasser: You do know though, that Georgia is the peach state?

Tyler Kinner: Absolutely.

Ashley Mengwasser: I know you're from Ohio originally.

Tyler Kinner: I am, yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: But that is a particular boon to our business here, so I like that robot very much. Robert, what about you?

Robert Kraushaar: This actually goes back over 40 years, but the fact that there were robots that are used for diffusing bombs.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh yeah. Yes, thank you for those too.

Robert Kraushaar: And it takes a human away from the bomb itself and-

Ashley Mengwasser: Lifesaving for us. Yeah, look at the impact. Think of a life problem, this can be personal, that you would like robots to tackle next.

Tyler Kinner: I need a robot to fold my laundry.

Ashley Mengwasser: I knew that was coming.

Robert Kraushaar: I need a robot to pet my cat.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, thank you. In the animal space, I'd like a robot to communicate with my dog and translate for her. That was going to be my original invention when I was in, I think it was elementary school, I came up with the Find-O-Matic, which would find anything that you lost. I may seem put together guys, but I'm very forgetful. Where did I put that thing? And then also, a dog translator, those were my two. Find things. Now, Apple came along with AirTag, so we've got some help in that department, but.

Tyler Kinner: And then when the dog translator callers do come out, that'll be a million-dollar idea, I'm sure.

Ashley Mengwasser: Exactly.

Tyler Kinner: Eventually when AI solves that problem. Right?

Ashley Mengwasser: Sure, yes, it definitely will. I won't, they should get right on that. Onto the subject that we are programmed to discuss at length. Let's talk about robots. Can you just give us a quick overview of the categories and types of robots out there and how they differ in application? Who would like to start this off?

Tyler Kinner: So, my favorite way to think about robots is we design them to do jobs that are dirty, dull, or dangerous.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, the triple D's.

Tyler Kinner: Yeah, the triple D's. Those jobs that if we didn't have robots, we would have to employ humans for, right? And there's obvious, Robert, you mentioned bomb defusing robots. If we can put a machine in place of a human for bomb defusing, that's an obvious win. And whenever I think about really great applications of robotics, it fits one of those three categories. Of course, there's fun robots that do things, although folding laundry is dull to me. There's fun robots too, but industrial applications, research applications, they tend to fit one of those three categories.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah, that's a really good way to think of it. I like that taxonomy. Robert, how can we think of categories of robots in your mind?

Robert Kraushaar: You've got your toy-like robots for kids to play with and learn on, but then you've got robots that will do things for you. For instance, in an industrial setting, the automotive industry is the first one to really start utilizing robots.

Ashley Mengwasser: On their assembly lines.

Robert Kraushaar: On assembly lines, exactly.

Ashley Mengwasser: Very good. And let's actually transition to industry right now, I think this is a good segue. How can we talk about robot usage used in industry? Show me what's showing up in manufacturing, healthcare, research fields, some of those other industries I mentioned at the top of our show.

Tyler Kinner: I think a classic example is the robot arm, which I think we've all probably seen used in manufacturing, right? So this will be like an articulated arm, it's able to have a certain range of movement, and they're used on assembly lines. And they're really great for that purpose because assembly lines are a repetitive motion. Again, one of these, we don't think about repetitive motion as dangerous, but if we ask the industrial safety people, they would say so, right? And that's one big application, obviously in manufacturing. But then even think about within manufacturing all the things that go into it, like logistics. And so, robots to help with the logistics. And maybe even robot human teams, if you have a really complicated job to do that maybe even with the power of AI, you're like, I don't know if I can trust a robot to do this job by itself. Can you give a human some way to control that robot and the robot and the human can work together to accomplish a goal?

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes.

Tyler Kinner: And I think we even see this in healthcare with certain types of surgery being assisted by particular kinds of robots where the surgeon doesn't necessarily do incisions or incisions by hand. Instead, they use a robot to do that and they are just simply controlling the robot. Of course, takes a great amount of skill on the part of the surgeon to know how to control that robot, and certainly want all of their training, but they're able to do it without necessarily having to use their hands, which are probably less precise than the robot would be.

Ashley Mengwasser: And this is not just good for business, this approach, this is good for positive social impact. So we have robots addressing real world problems out there. Robert, you said it, your students are looking for a problem to solve, that's the first thing we have to identify. What are robots doing right now for individuals with disabilities, maybe mitigating environmental issues out there, disaster response? What have you seen? Tyler,

Tyler Kinner: Certainly, robots for social good. There's so many different applications and you can think about maybe small robots that exist in the home, if you've got something like a Roomba or a robot vacuum, even simple stuff, right? Just improvements in those vacuums. I remember when those vacuums came out in the early 2000s, right? They were super clumsy, they ran into everything. And you can think that if you're an elderly person in the home who's prone to falls or anyone who's prone to falls in the home, you don't want your foot to get run over by a robot vacuum and you fall over. I don't know if there's ever been a documented case of that, but even just simple improvements in robotics in the home can help support individuals.

Robert Kraushaar: One of the things that immediately comes to mind with me was a demonstration I saw over at in Georgia Tech just last year, where an amputee was able to walk up a ramp because he had robotic legs, and he was able to get up and move around on his own.

Ashley Mengwasser: Because of robots.

Robert Kraushaar: Because of robots, yeah.

Ashley Mengwasser: That is huge. You guys are giving us the higher view of robot applications. Let's talk about on the ground level for our young students in classrooms in Georgia and our K through 12 classes out there. We set this up a bit, Robert, with your involvement with FIRST Lego League, and you mentioned to us that students across grade levels can participate in this, and we're engaging robotics. This is STEM education at its finest. What are some key benefits that you've seen for students who participate in FIRST Lego league?

Robert Kraushaar: Learning how to work together as a team.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah. Oh, that's big.

Robert Kraushaar: That's one of the big things, dealing with FIRST Lego League. Researching, learning how to research a problem. Learning how to come up with ideas to solve a problem. Those are all things that are developed in FIRST Lego League competition.

Ashley Mengwasser: It's a whole thought process and a new way of thinking about society and our role in society, I think. And more and more educators are integrating coding to cultivate essential skills in their students, like problem solving, critical thinking. What role does coding play in robotics?

Robert Kraushaar: It's essential with FIRST Lego League because the robot is autonomous, you cannot control it remotely. You have to have it run completely on its own. And it uses a program with block coding, very similar to Scratch. And that's one of the things that FIRST and Lego saw when Scratch first came out. Since Scratch was being used so much in computer science, they wanted to get in on that as well so that the kids would see familiar coding practices.

Ashley Mengwasser: Right and use those to springboard their next works. Tell me, Tyler, robotics, coding in your work.

Tyler Kinner: I think it's just an extension of something that teachers have been teaching I think for the last decade now, it's been in vogue with STEM teachers, which is the design process. So think about, okay, what job do you want your robot to do? And now break that job down into a series of tasks, and then break those tasks down into a series of steps. And there you go, that's coding. And the great thing about block coding is you don't need to know any Syntax or fancy programming language, you can just use blocks. But if you do know a fancy programming language, you have even more power at your fingertips to tell that robot to do this job that you want it to do.

Ashley Mengwasser: And we're using coding, whatever software, I guess the students know to command the Robotarium, right?

Tyler Kinner: Yeah, yeah. Again, block coding, Robotarium also runs with Python, which is another popular. High school students more and more I think are learning Python as part of their computer science courses, and beyond the Robotarium. I think the field has gotten to a point now where if you've got a particular programming language, there's a robot system out there for you that you can interface with, even if it's something like a C++ or any of those and many more.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's a good note, to start with what you know in your classroom or what feels accessible as an entry point to robots, you can build on that. And speaking of accessibility, how can educators create robotics programs that are accessible and inclusive to our students of diverse backgrounds so that they can all engage with robotics, because it's cool?

Robert Kraushaar: One of the things that they can do is to, if they look at FIRST, FIRST, has developed some modules that will help teach programming and robotics. And CEISMC here at Georgia Tech has also, with a STEM ID program, that also is based on a lot of research went into it. What happens or what has happened is many school systems across the state have adopted STEM ID or implementing that in their CTAE courses.

Ashley Mengwasser: Excellent, and let's-

Robert Kraushaar: At the middle school level.

Ashley Mengwasser: Middle school, I know that's your background, Robert. What about disciplinary approaches with robotics? Can we fuse math and literature or art and engineering?

Robert Kraushaar: That's one of the big things with the FIRST Lego league, with the research that they have to do to solve the problem that they've identified, they have to draw on all different aspects of education in order to come up with their solution. There's this place for every student in FIRST Lego league. It may be that the kid does not like Robotics or math, but they like doing research or they like writing something, writing a report. There's a place for them in there. The math whiz, understanding how to figure out, how big is the wheel on that robot and how can I figure out how far I want the robot to move based on how much the wheel turns? So, there's a lot of math involved.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah. So there's actually a good reason to cross-pollinate your subjects if you want to get your students engaged. What about the programs you're involved in, Tyler? Let's talk about how we can engage students of all diverse backgrounds, and then give me your take on the interdisciplinary approach to robotics.

Tyler Kinner: So, my answer to both questions is really thinking about robots as a tool to solve problems. And so if you let students pick their problems or work together to pick a problem, or you pick a problem at least from the point of view of a student, something that really speaks to the student's life or at least their interests, right? Then you can, no matter who your students are in your classroom and no matter who you are, hopefully it'll be more relevant because students will be bought in. They're solving a problem that they want to solve, it's in their life, and that's one approach. Then I think when you're problem-solving, that's inherently interdisciplinary, because rarely do you ever solve a problem just by using one train of knowledge or one thought process, right? If I'm using a robot to fold my laundry, there's going to be some math involved, thinking about the size of the shirts and the angles that they have to fold at, but also maybe some humanities, some social studies. Maybe the robot should ask me how I would like my clothes folded because-

Ashley Mengwasser: Wouldn't that be nice?

Tyler Kinner: Yeah, right?

Ashley Mengwasser: Yeah.

Tyler Kinner: Or even something like, I'm going to call it home ec because I don't know what else to call it, but just the ability to identify different types of fabric, right?

Ashley Mengwasser: Life sciences, yeah.

Tyler Kinner: Some things need hung up; things need folded. And that's a silly example, but I think when you're problem-solving, robots are one part of it but not the whole piece. And so that's the interdisciplinary nature. I think it's hard if you approach robotics as a, I'm going to give my kids this challenge where they have to move the robot through a maze. And of course, that's a problem that students should do at some point in their career, right? That's a good lesson to do but there's more to it than that, right? And that's why FIRST Lego league is great because they've got so many different types of challenges that they have to do. It's a lot more than just move this robot from point A to B, to C, to D. One thing that we've done in the programs that I've been a part here at here at GTRI is partnering with middle school classrooms. Sixth grade earth science, they're learning about different types of environments, right? Different planets. And so they had to design a robot that was able to explore a dangerous environment on another planet and be able to survive the conditions on that planet. Now, of course-

Ashley Mengwasser: What a great challenge.

Tyler Kinner: They didn't do any programming, but they had some really cool sketches of different robots. One that, of course, if you're exploring a gaseous planet, there's no surface to land on. So your robot doesn't need wheels, but it needs some sort of propellers or props or something to keep it a lift in the atmosphere, and so students are able to come up with those solutions. And again, they were sketching them out, so there's some art integration. They were using their science knowledge and then also tying it back with this robotics, not necessarily from a coding perspective, but from a, let's design a robot to do a job, perspective.

Ashley Mengwasser: It all goes back to problem solving. And I know for you, your large problem is the laundry folding thing.

Tyler Kinner: I've hit it multiple times.

Ashley Mengwasser: You have.

Tyler Kinner: I'm hoping someone at Georgia Tech hears this.

Ashley Mengwasser: There will be a solution soon, I trust, but also, I can contribute.

Robert Kraushaar: We'll work on and over at CEISMC.

Tyler Kinner: Perfect. Thanks, Robert.

Ashley Mengwasser: Thank you, Robert. I can contribute something to this conversation. I just want to make sure that you're hanging up your silk shirts. Are you a silk shirt kind of guy?

Tyler Kinner: I'm not a silk shirt kind of guy.

Ashley Mengwasser: I'm shocked.

Tyler Kinner: You're shocked?

Ashley Mengwasser: Just make sure you do that if that's in your laundry. Let's talk about emerging trends in the field of robotics. Can you give me a quick answer to this one? As technology continues to advance quicker than I can keep up, what emerging trends should educators know about in robotics right now? And don't tell them too much, because I want them to go look into it.

Robert Kraushaar: AI.

Ashley Mengwasser: Just go look into AI. Go read about it, yes.

Tyler Kinner: Yeah, I would agree. AI in robotics is huge. Another one is the miniaturization of robotics.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh, tell me about this.

Tyler Kinner: So, can you make a robot that can fit into your bloodstream?

Ashley Mengwasser: Mind blown; we're going to leave it at that. Okay, and let's end with tools and resources that are available to help educators incorporate robotics in their classrooms. Do you have a good starting point for them, Tyler?

Tyler Kinner: Of course, I'm going to plug our program at STEM at GTRI, and the Direct to Discovery program, and the Georgia Tech Robotarium, but I would encourage educators, whether they're close to Georgia Tech or far, connect with myself, with Robert, with any of the other fantastic folks who work in K-12 education at Georgia Tech. But there's also phenomenal STEM and robotics happening across the state, as well as an industry. And so just do a Google search. Who is in your neck of the woods? And there's a lot of great advanced manufacturing happening throughout Georgia, and those companies want talent, and no better place to start than the schools in their communities to find that talent.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's a great starting point. Tools and resources. Where should they go, Robert?

Robert Kraushaar: There are, currently we have almost 500 teams across the state that participate in FIRST Lego league.

Ashley Mengwasser: Wow.

Robert Kraushaar: We used to have over 700, that was pre-COVID, but COVID hit us pretty hard.

Ashley Mengwasser: Cramped our style everywhere, didn't it? Yeah.

Robert Kraushaar: But a FIRST Lego League team, that could be started anywhere. It doesn't have to be a school, it can be a church, it can be a student organization, it could be just a parent who wants to help their kids and a couple of neighborhood kids put together a team. It's not limited as to who can participate or who can be a coach or anything like that. So checking out FIRST, checking out the website at CEISMC for FIRST Lego League, will give you a lot of information on how to get started.

Ashley Mengwasser: Very good. Thank you, Robert and Tyler, I appreciate you guys being here today.

Tyler Kinner: Thank you.

Robert Kraushaar: Thank you.

Ashley Mengwasser: I'd love to talk tech with you again, but frankly, I think you fried my motherboard in this first conversation, so I'm going to need to recuperate. You're so brilliant, thanks for introducing schools to robotics. Thanks for being here. Okay, educators, you've got robot friends now. You've got podcast friends and us. And who wouldn't want to be your friend? You're a great teacher. With that kind of support you're pretty unstoppable, which means that your students are too. I'm Ashley, we're back next week and there will be more mind-blowing Computer Science Leadership episodes to attune to this season. Until then-

Robot Voice: Goodbye teachers.

Ashley Mengwasser: Bye. Funding for Classroom Conversations is made possible through the School Climate Transformation Grant.