Learning Together: Del Valle Students Experience the Center for Autonomy

Exposure to science, robotics, and engineering in high school can propel new passions, illuminate new paths to explore, and catalyze discoveries that change the world. Two groups of junior and senior students in robotics and engineering programs at Del Valle High School had the opportunity to immerse themselves in a world of technology and innovation through a visit to the Oden Institute on April 11. 

Groups experienced hands-on, immersive tours of the Robotics Lab at Anna Hiss Gym, and the Texas Advanced Computing Center VisLab, led by graduate students at the Oden Institute’s Center for Autonomy. At both tour stops, students were able to engage first hand with the cutting edge work taking place at the Oden Institute. 

They watched autonomous robots navigate traffic with ease, responding to cues with safety-centered precision, and they explored how robots can be optimized to work in unstructured, ever-changing environments through vision-based reinforcement learning algorithms. 

During the tour, students were introduced to the basic principles of supercomputing, and viewed demonstrations of research in larger-than-life detail on Stallion, the VisLab’s 28.5’-8’, 600 megapixel tiled wall of screens. Graduate students encouraged the high-schoolers to participate in the interactive stations -  trying on virtual reality goggles, playing games on a large touch-screen and using 3-D glasses to 'step-into' images displayed on the tiled wall.

 

Reflecting on the event, Antonio Maldonado, an Engineering and Robotics Instructor at Del Valle high school, noticed striking parallels between many graduate students' journeys to robotics and the experiences of his students. “It was important for us to learn that several of the researchers credit their participation in First Robotics programs and competitions with starting their university education,” he said. “I hope that seeing the technologies we introduce in our robotics classes implemented at an advanced level may inspire some of my students to continue their study of engineering.”

William Ward and Phillip Zhao, CSEM graduate students in the Autonomous Systems group, emphasized the importance of communicating science with students. “Robotics is such a growing field, and there are so many different ways to get involved. Giving high-school students the opportunity to see what researchers do might help them decide what career they’d want to pursue in the future.”

Ward and Zhao’s appreciation for science outreach is shared by their mentor and Director for the Center of Autonomy, Ufuk Topcu. “Outreach activities give invaluable experience to everybody participating,” he shared. “Our younger visitors get a glimpse of higher education, while our graduate and postdoctoral researchers acquire a more balanced view of the world around them. This work is a part of our core mission as educators.” 

The partnership between Del Valle High School and the Oden Institute extends far beyond this visit. Students from the Center for Autonomy will visit classes at Del Valle High School on April 24. They plan on making presentations covering the ever-accelerating use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the real world, and exploring how control systems help keep our planes in the air and enable rovers to make safe touchdowns on distant planets.