Guest Lectures on AI and Robotics

The School of Engineering and the Provost’s Office co-hosted two more installments of the AI Action Plan Speaker Series in February.

On Feb. 12, Odest Chadwicke Jenkins, Ph.D., University of Michigan robotics and computer science professor, shared his vision for robotics education with faculty from The Citadel. Jenkins presented his work on semantic robot programming, discussed the Brooksian embodied intelligence framework and argued for continued work in probabilistic inference.

On Feb. 24, Chad Herschock, Ph.D., executive director of the Carnegie Mellon University Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation, led a discussion and lecture called How Student Use of GenAI as a Thought Partner Impacts Learning. Herschock described the GenAI Teaching as Research Initiative, which last spring involved 424 students across 28 first-year writing courses taught by 16 instructors. One key takeaway was that instructor feedback impacts student performance beyond what peer and GenAI feedback provide. It was also noted that the just-in-time nature of GenAI feedback may be a differentiating factor in accelerating learning.