Two Mechanical Robot Hounds Are Helping Students in Carlisle Area School Learn Coding

Two mechanical robot hounds named Salt and Pepper will be used to teach Carlisle Area School students how to code using Javascript or C++ starting next school year. Although each robot already comes with a set of pre-programmed tasks from the manufacturer, students will be personally given opportunities to program the pair to perform tricks and accomplish physical tasks.

“The students will use them to learn about mechanical level 1 AI, so they’ll be able to program the robot using Javascript or Java, or C++… the main part really is understanding how to control a machine to have it do what you want it to do”, Dr. Parillo, head of of the Technology Program at CHS, states.

Currently, many robots user in varying industries such as the military, police, and medical fields are using level 1 AI robots, which means exposing and equipping students to these type of robots give them more skills and experience that are valuable to future employers when they graduate.

Albeit, these types of technology and robots come at an expensive cost. Luckily, Dr. Parillo was able to purchase these two mechanical robot hounds for the career and tech programs of the school using a state subsidy and grant.

“We couldn’t just take the funds out of the budget [because of the excessive cost]. We get subsidies because we have career and tech programs, that’s what makes us unique. We have 11 programs and we have 640 kids in our programs so that helps us get more money”, says Dr. Parillo.

Students who are enrolled in Honors Engineering, Computer Science, Raspberry Pi, and other coding classes will have the opportunity to program the mechanical robot hounds and if needed, repair it themselves. In the meantime, teachers will be using the robot hounds over the summer to get acquainted with them.