Kingsview Village program teaching robotics and AI to elementary students

With over 60 per cent of its population made up of visible minority groups, it’s an understatement to say Kingsview Village-The Westway is diverse.

Bordered by Highway 401 and The Westway, this suburban neighbourhood in north Etobicoke is the ideal place to teach BIPOC kids about robotics and AI.

The Coalition of Innovation Leaders Against Racism (CILAR) wants robotics and AI to be accessible to everyone, including BIPOC children. So, it teamed up with GlobalDWS, a tech solutions provider that brings innovative projects to life, to provide educational robots for the kids to interact with.

Rami Wehbe, co-founder of GlobalDWS, says AI and robotics can help solve some of the world’s current problems and that students can be part of the solution.

His goal is to “democratize” access to these kinds of technological resources, especially for people in marginalized communities. “They need to [have] access to try and use it to see how they can solve their own problems,” Wehbe explains.

Launched this past April, “Empower to Invent” is a three-part program that offers hands-on robotics education to children from Grades 2 to 5.

In the first part of the program, students brainstorm different ideas to use robotics and AI in their community. Then CILAR and GlobalDWS bring in robots to interact with them. Finally, industry professionals visit the school to connect with students directly.

“I think we need robotics because in our day-to-day life, there’s lots of stuff that we can help [with] — that robots can help — like [picking up] the leaves on the floor or garbage on the ground,” says Najib Hassan, a grade 5 student at Kingsview Village Jr. Public School.

“A lot of underrepresented schools or intercity neighbourhood schools don’t have access to programs such as this [on robotics and AI]. I can definitely relate to that as myself going to school within the Toronto District School Board, as well; I didn’t have access to opportunities like this,” says Ismail Mohamud, program facilitator and founding engineer at CILAR.

“So, having students be exposed to these programs early and letting them build that confidence within them [is important so] that they can be the young bright innovators of the future.”

Inspired by the program, Kingsview Village Jr. Public School secured a grant for training teachers about coding and robotics in September. The grant will help teachers develop lesson plans that connect AI concepts with school curriculum and encourage students to pursue STEM fields.

“There are these amazing robots that can help solve problems within our community, whether it’s racism, bullying, you know, picking up trash or segregating things. So, it’s important that students, every student — even the BIPOC students — are given that opportunity,” Bhumri says.

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