Digital teacher educates children about renewable energy

Pixabay

An energy company has created a digital teacher using AI to help children learn about different types of renewable energy.

New Zealand-based energy company Vector has partnered with artificial intelligence company Soul Machines to create a digital teacher – named Will – for teaching children about renewable energy. Will is an on-screen avatar which students can view from their desktop, tablet or mobile. The technology, developed by Soul Machines, uses an Artificial Nervous System which is an autonomous animation platform. The platform imitates the way the human brain and nervous system acts.

The digital teacher is part of Vector’s ‘Be Sustainable with Energy’ project which teaches children about energy. It is available for free to schools that are Vector customers and has educated over 125,000 children since 2005. Will teaches students about the different forms of renewable energy such as solar, wind and geothermal. To test topic knowledge, Will asks questions such as “How long does sunlight take to reach the earth?”

Nikhil Ravishankar, Chief Digital Officer at Vector, said: “Using a digital human is a very compelling method to deliver new information to people. and I have a lot of hope in this technology as a means to deliver cost-effective, rich, educational experiences into the future.”

Here at Springwise, we have published many innovations in education such as an online learning tool that builds empathy in children by connecting them with other students from around the world. Another example is an app that lets students create a digital portfolio of their work for their parents and teachers to view.