This week’s Pic of the Week provides a glimpse into the community outreach performed by CU Boulder engineering professor Bobby Hodgkinson. On a monthly basis, he heads to the Balfour independent living facility in Louisville, where he leads a group of senior citizens in what’s become an ongoing lecture and discussion series on artificial intelligence.
Hodgkinson says he’s been most surprised by the high level of interest and engagement in the subject of AI that his Balfour “students” have shown, as demonstrated by the sophistication of their insightful questions and comments. It’s also clear that not only is the professor energized by his visits to the senior living center, but that the residents are, too.
To that point, he’s heard from someone on the center’s staff that many of the attendees continue to have conversations about AI among themselves in between his visits, indicating a strong level of interest in the subject and in how it’s been making its presence known in their lives. In fact, Hodgkinson is planning for an upcoming meeting to be a hands-on, bring-your-laptop workshop for the more adventurous AI enthusiasts in the group.
Hodgkinson gives credit to his mother, a hospice nurse, for giving him the idea of visiting a senior living facility to help its residents understand the AI revolution that they hear about in the news. These sessions have helped to make it real to many of the residents, who are now able to discuss it in more depth with their children and grandchildren.
In the larger picture, Hodgkinson’s outreach to the residents of the senior living facility is just an extension of his professional focus on teaching engineering to undergraduates: It’s all about reaching out and helping others learn about the tools that are out there and how they can make the best use of them.
In fact, earlier this week, Hodgkinson was featured on Colorado.edu in a piece titled, “Adding AI in the aerospace classroom.” The article is a very interesting read, going into his mission to drive positive AI adoption in education, and how he’s doing that right now in his classes.
As Hodgkinson says in the piece, “The goal is education focused more on the individual student. Where are you today, where do you need to be tomorrow, and how do I help get you there? We didn’t have the resources to do that before; there’s not enough hours in the day. Now if I can build a tool, I can do something about it.”
In addition to being on the Rocky Mountain AI Interest Group's Board of Advisors, Hodgkinson leads the AI & Education subgroup, which is open to the public. It seems significant that while most of the subgroups meet once a month, the Education group has meetings every two weeks. Ultimately, of course, the frequency of these meetings is no surprise. Just like in the classroom and at the senior living center, Hodgkinson’s passion for teaching shines through.
The writer is a member of RMAIIG's Executive Committee.
