Build a robot student

[Daniel-Mietchen]

The idea here is to attempt to build a machine that can fulfill the requirements for a degree and a "life" on campus in order to

1. test the limits of automation from multiple perspectives, e.g. technical, data science, sociological, legal, artistic, ethical etc.
2. address those barriers
3. finetune the above

[Daniel-Mietchen]

A Google search for "robot student" brings up a number of interesting things, mostly revolving around the idea to facilitate class participation by students who are not in the classroom (e.g. for health reasons, or as online students).

What I have in mind includes that but is broader, e.g.

• to test institutional workflows for machine actionability
  • which of the steps from applying to college until graduation can be performed by machines (or, as a first step, by people dependent on assistive devices) in principle, and what barriers stand in the way of doing so (e.g. technical, legal, ethical etc.)
• to test how "fellow" students, instructors and others react to the presence & participation of such a robot student in class
• to educate students, instructors and the robot(s) about the relative performance of humans vs. machines for certain tasks
• to explore educational settings outside classrooms, e.g
  • online only
  • field work
  • internships

[Daniel-Mietchen]

Some interesting posts from the above list:

• https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/04/26/robots-classrooms-connect-distance-learners-classrooms
• https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/03/08/technology-allows-teaching-two-places-once