Reno Reporter

The University of Nevada, Reno's (UNR) Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department held a robotic experience for the third consecutive year.

The teacher-oriented "Integrating Big Data into Robotics" program is a six-week program in which teachers obtain research experience that they can transition to their own classrooms, a recent UNR news release said.

The name of the artificial intelligence class is Duckietown, which is based on how to engage students.

“Duckietown is a freely available robotics platform and curricula for all levels of education,” CSE professor Lei Yang said in the release. “It is tangible, accessible and fun. It has mobile robots and roads, constructed from exercise mats and tape.”

Teachers learned how to manufacture and develop a track for ducks to race on.

“The mobile robots are built from off-the-shelf parts and using open-source software and the curricula, such as lectures and exercises are provided on the Duckietown website,” Yang said in the release. “These unique features set Duckietown apart from other engineering, robotics and/or AI projects.”

Duckietown dates back to 2016, when a graduate class from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology established a “Duckumentary” video that has a blueprint for the Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program.

“Our RET program involves K-12 teachers, and one main goal of our program is to work with these teachers to develop curriculum modules suitable for their students,” Yang said. “We have a dedicated faculty who work with these teachers on curriculum development every day. At the end of the summer program, each teacher will present the curriculum module that they plan to offer to their students.”