“Good morning, future captains!” As soon as the humanoid robot assistant “Xiao C” walked into the classroom wearing a pilot’s uniform, its cheerful English greeting filled the room, instantly catching everyone’s attention. School of Air Transportation (School of Flying) at SUES has launched a pilot program for human-robot collaborative teaching. This initiative marks an innovative step by the university in advancing its 3-Wings reform for undergraduate talent cultivation.
1. Intelligent Integration: Three-Party Collaborative Teaching
In this Professional Aviation English (Oral) class, the humanoid robot Xiao C modeled the standard pronunciation of aviation terminology in authentic English. Utilizing its immersive scenario simulation capabilities, it recreated real-world aviation situations such as air traffic control communications and cockpit resource management.
The robot teaching assistant has unlocked unprecedented possibilities for aviation English instruction, said the course instructor Li Peiqi. 'Xiao C' can simulate English communication scenarios across various aviation environments, providing students with near-authentic training experiences that are difficult to achieve through traditional teaching methods. This teacher-led, robot-assisted model not only enhances teaching efficiency but also sparks student interest and boosts engagement through human-robot interaction, fundamentally reshaping the classroom dynamic.
This class also integrated the expertise of an industry mentor, creating a tripartite teaching approach involving the instructor, the robot assistant, and the industry professional. The instructor acts as the instructional designer and facilitator, deeply guiding the teaching pace and cognitive construction process. The robot Xiao C, serving as an intelligent assistant, handles tasks like simulating ATC communications, conducting pattern drills, and providing real-time feedback, thereby freeing the instructor to focus on creative instruction. Simultaneously, the class featured a live interaction with a veteran captain from an aviation enterprise acting as the industry mentor, effectively bringing real-world operational scenarios into the classroom and achieving a seamless connection between the classroom and the cockpit.
This pedagogical framework is deeply rooted in Constructivist Learning Theory and Situated Cognition Theory, emphasizing the construction of knowledge meaning within authentic professional contexts through human-robot, teacher-student, and student-student interactions. It breaks the spatiotemporal constraints of traditional classrooms, fostering an innovative educational ecosystem characterized by virtual-real integration, human-robot collaboration, and industry-education interconnectivity. This embodies a modern teaching philosophy that is student-centered, competency-oriented, and intelligently supported.
2. Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Multiple Schools Co-CreatingI
The pilot program involving the humanoid robot in the classroom was coordinated by the SUES Academic Affairs Office. The secondary development of the humanoid robot teaching assistant was carried out by the team led by Professor Wang Guozhong, Executive Deputy Dean of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence Industry Research.
Adopting a project-based training model, Professor Wang guided a postgraduate research team that not only ensured the robot’s effective integration into classroom teaching but also strengthened the students’ engineering practice and their ability to tackle complex real-world problems.
Professor Li Chunxiao, Vice Dean of School of Textile and Fashion, led a faculty team in developing the robot's attire. They applied proprietary technologies focusing on three specific aspects: role portrayal, protection, and monitoring. The synergistic collaboration among these three distinct units – engineering, AI, and design – pooled their expertise for innovation, forming a tripartite innovation engine. This genuinely reflects the university's distinctive 3-Wings interdisciplinary feature integrating Engineering, Design, and Management.
3. New Measures for the 3-Wings Undergraduate Talent Training Reform to be Introduced
The introduction of the humanoid robot into the classroom is one of the new measures under SUES' 3-Wings undergraduate talent training reform. This comprehensive reform spans multiple key dimensions, including general education courses, computer science curriculum, industry-education integrated practice, and AI+ courses, aiming to provide students with a learning experience that is more in-depth, broad-ranging, and practically valuable.
SUES will further base its efforts on this new developmental stage, seize opportunities, and strengthen interdisciplinary integration to achieve new breakthroughs in talent cultivation quality. Key initiatives will include advancing PBL (Project-Based Learning) reform, characterized by its interdisciplinary and cross-major nature, designing courses around real-world industrial problems, and forming a three-tier curriculum system of micro-course → micro-course cluster → micro-degree. Through cross-school course integration and unified platform management, the university will optimize credit recognition and teaching workload allocation to ensure the regular operation of PBL courses. It will also enhance AI empowerment, introduce Human-Engaged Computing (HEC) thinking, integrate ideological and political education into the curriculum to develop general education courses, formulate teaching guidelines, and systematically promote innovation in intelligent education.
The 3-Wings undergraduate talent training reform will lay a solid foundation for SUES' goal of building itself into a world-class application-innovation university with distinct industrial characteristics.
