ME268: Robotics, AI, and the Design of Future Education
Instructor: Dr. Li Jiang
Schedule: Winter Quarter 2026, Thursday 4:305:20 PM
Course Overview This course explores the transformative intersection of robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and education. As robotics and AI technologies continue to advance at unprecedented speed, their impact on the global workforce and society will be profound. Many jobs that exist today may be automated within the next two decades, requiring educators, policymakers, and technologists to fundamentally rethink how we prepare future generations.
Through a series of lectures and distinguished guest speakers from academia and industry, students will examine cutting-edge developments in robotics and AI, and consider their implications for the design and evolution of educational systems. Discussions will highlight not only the technical frontiers of robotics and AI, but also the social, ethical, and pedagogical questions they raise.
Learning Goals
- Understand state-of-the-art advancements in robotics and AI.
- Analyze how emerging technologies like AI and robotics are reshaping the future of education.
- Engage directly with thought leaders from academia, industry, and venture capital in the field of AI, robotics and education.
- Explore strategies for redesigning educational systems to adapt to a robotics- and AI-driven era.
Recent Guest Speakers
- Dr. Alice Agogino Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes Professor, UC Berkeley; Chair, Development Engineering Graduate Group.
- Dr. Paul Kim CTO and Assistant Dean, Stanford Graduate School of Education; expert in AI and education technology.
- Dr. William Clancey Chief Scientist, NASA Ames; Founding Editor-in-Chief, AAAI/MIT Press.
- Esther Wojcicki American journalist, educator, vice chair of the Creative Commons advisory council, God mother of Silicon valley, Forbes 50 over 50.
- Dr. John Hu Director of Advanced Technology Group in NVIDIA Corporation, Director of Board, Nvidia Foundation.
- Dr. Hongyu Ren Lead researcher at OpenAI. Led the development of OpenAIs o3, o3-mini, etc
- Dr. Sam Yen Head of Commercial Real Estate Digital, JP Morgan Chase; former Chief Design Officer, SAP.
- Dr. ShiPeng Lee IEEE Fellow; former VP of Microsoft Research Asia; leading authority in computer vision and AI.
- Sergio Monsalve Venture Partner, Norwest Venture Partners; board member of Udemy and other leading education companies.
Instructor: Dr. Li Jiang Robotics and Design Thinking expert; recipient of the Best of Innovations award at CES. His research focuses on the multidisciplinary integration of AI, robotics, and the future of education.