This blog post was written by (left to right in photos) Lisa Kelley, Operations Manager/Program Manager, Joel Grimm, Manager and Chris Lai, Asst. Staff at Beaver Works/Beaver Works Summer Institute. Their session, MIT Beaver Works: Empowering Educators to Teach AI, will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, November 7 at the Professional Conference.

The RACECAR program offered by Beaver Works Summer Institute empowers educators to teach students about self-driving cars in a dynamic, hands-on way. By focusing on critical thinking, problem-solving, and real-world applications, it helps prepare students for the future. Through comprehensive curriculum and materials, RACECAR equips educators to enhance their understanding and guide students through the complexities of autonomous vehicle technology.

The program emphasizes coding, sensor integration, and teamwork, giving students technical expertise and encouraging teamwork. This project-based approach not only educates students about the technology but also encourages creativity, collaboration, and adaptability. It’s inspiring to see how programs like RACECAR are shaping the next generation of innovators and problem-solvers.

This demo will show educators how to bring this curriculum into their classrooms and offer a hands-on opportunity to program the car themselves.

What will your students learn?
The Autonomous RACECAR program is an intensive, rewarding introduction to robotics and systems engineering. The project-based approach quickly helps the students learn programming with rapid code, test sequences.  This approach helps students to grasp important concepts and think critically as they build and test.  The RACECAR Neo curriculum provides students the experience with working with hardware and software that allows a 1:14 scale RC car to drive autonomously.

The course is divided into six units, covering core topics like computer vision, control theory, localization and mapping, data filtering, and deep learning. Additionally, students have the opportunity to develop an in-depth research project as part of the course, that is their project that they can continue to work on.

Check out this video to see the RACECAR in action!