On Friday, November 10th, 2023, Co-Director of the Center for Engineering Innovation (CEI) at UT Dallas, Eric Kildebeck, M.D., Ph.D., visited the SMU Campus to hold a discussion about the work that is done at the CEI and its implications for the future.
Dr. Kildebeck began by providing insight into his personal interests and how those correlate to his work. He discussed his interests in biotech and teaching, specifically neurology. He completed both an M.D. and a Ph.D. program at UT Southwestern Medical Center. The focus of his Ph.D. work was gene therapy, which eventually transitioned to CRISPR Therapeutics from Stanford.
Next, Dr. Kildebeck discussed the background of the CEI and its purpose. The CEI has a focus on entrepreneurship, developing technologies to be transitioned to the “real world” and creating companies such as Regulife Medical, where Dr. Kildebeck is the Director of Medical Technology.
Another major project the CEI has worked on is Polycraft World. Polycraft World is a Minecraft mod designed to teach students of all ages about science, chemistry, engineering, and more. Dr. Kildebeck discussed how the mod has the ability to teach graduate-level college students subjects such as polymer chemistry and petrochemical refinement. The goal of gamifying education is to hold the attention of students for longer and engage and advance their skills in a way that they enjoy. The example that Dr. Kildebeck used was that of a Kevlar vest. Students are able to build a jetpack to fly around, but to ensure that the avatar is not burned by the jetpack, they must go through the steps of creating a highly complex kevlar vest and applying the equations that they have learned.
Dr. Kildebeck also discussed the integration of AI into society. He envisions that the role of AI will be similar to that of electricity: it will advance society and change some aspects of the workforce, but AI will not replace human interaction. For example, State-of-the-Art (SotA) AI does not understand basic concepts as it relies on pattern recognition. When the input is “Ping Pong Ball Couch”, SotA AI drawings do not produce the drawings that humans would logically produce.
However, AI will become highly integrated into the workplace and education. The Polycraft AI Lab (PAL) is an open-world testbed for AI, humans, and human-AI team development. As explained by Dr. Kildebeck, it allows researchers to analyze unexpected, out-of-distribution scenarios in large open worlds. Platforms such as Shared Experience Lifelong Learning (ShELL) allow for collaboration within the platform, which is optimal for experiential learning.
Dr. Kildebeck also shared how the workplace is changing and education systems are not producing the talent needed to fill current roles, but that can be remedied through these untraditional learning platforms. These trainings can be completed through gamified platforms for lower costs than education. The example shown by Dr. Kildebeck was the Polycraft Work Depot, which was funded by the Department of Defense to advance US battery infrastructure. The modules were designed for middle and high school students to raise awareness about jobs in emerging and growing industries.
As for the future, Dr. Kildebeck believes AI will be important in the learning process for teaching soft skills such as prioritization and navigation distractions. He also discussed how it can be a supplement to textbooks, where kids can apply the skills and concepts that they learned with real-time assessment and feedback.
Dr. Kildebeck ended the discussion by opening the floor for questions and discussions about collaboration. If you are interested in collaborating with peers in technology-enhanced learning, immersive learning, and AI/machine learning spaces, join us for the next TEIL Talk on Friday, January 19th, from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Harold Simmons 116 and on Zoom.
For more information visit our website www.smu.edu/teil.