{"id":1754,"date":"2017-10-12T13:56:54","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T20:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/?p=1754"},"modified":"2025-04-14T14:45:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T21:45:03","slug":"meet-pepper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/meet-pepper\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Pepper, the face of A.I. at Palomar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Campus debut for robot that can answer questions, interact with students\u2014the first of its kind on a U.S. college campus.<\/p>\n

SAN MARCOS \u2014 On a sunny morning at Palomar College, a four-foot-tall robot named Pepper took its first turns as the mascot and team captain of Palomar\u2019s Artificial Intelligence Project.<\/p>\n

In its signature high-pitched voice, Pepper urged admirers to \u201cSay cheese!\u201d while posing for pictures, and entertained an audience of students, staff and journalists by dancing and cracking jokes. More significantly, the robot hinted at its value as a student resource by acknowledging and engaging individually with dozens of people in the space of several hours on Tuesday, Oct. 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cPalomar College is known for being a trailblazer in education,\u201d said college Superintendent\/President Joi Blake. \u201cPepper is going to give students new ways to engage with the college.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Palomar

Palomar College Peer Ambassador Amaris Gonzalez, taking a selfie with Pepper on Tuesday, Oct. 10. Photo by Melinda Finn.<\/p><\/div>\n

For Pepper<\/a> and the team managing the robot and implementing Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) on campus, the real work started weeks ago, when they programmed Pepper to give a presentation to a group of local high school superintendents and principals.<\/p>\n

And things will get even more intense in the coming months as the robot\u2014and an identical model at the Escondido Education Center\u2014is deployed to begin interacting with students.<\/p>\n

Adrian Gonzales, Assistant Superintendent\/Vice President, Student Services, said that Pepper represents a leap forward in the technology being used to serve students.<\/p>\n

Pepper, he pointed out, is the only robot of its kind on a U.S. college campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s deeper engagement with students who have more advanced technology than we\u2019ve ever had,\u201d said Gonzales. \u201cDuring our heavy registration rush, if you have a quick question about where a building is, rather than standing in line, the robot is there and you can quickly go up and say, \u2018Hey, where\u2019s the NS building? I need to get to class.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

If the machine seems familiar, it\u2019s because models have been deployed in a variety of capacities around the world, to much fanfare. In Japan, for example, robots like Pepper are serving as household helpers and business concierges.<\/p>\n

Although Pepper will initially be answering questions and helping with presentations, it is capable of much more, such as scanning human faces and reading emotions: \u201cIt can be programmed to do anything that you\u2019re creative enough to think of,\u201d said Gonzales.<\/p>\n

To bring Pepper to San Marcos, Palomar partnered with A.I. Campus Solutions, a company based in Chula Vista that will be playing close attention to how Pepper performs here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question for our team is how can we utilize artificial intelligence and robotics to enhance the student experience and, specifically, increase graduation rates,\u201d said Ken Gonzales, president of A.I. Campus Solutions. \u201cCan we see an impact with this technology in students\u2019 success? That\u2019s really what we\u2019re after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Palomar is a research and development site for this cutting-edge technology, it\u2019s likely that lessons learned here will be applied at college campuses up and down California and throughout the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main focus for us is really how our students are interacting with it, what sort of questions they\u2019re asking,\u201d said Palomar\u2019s Adrian Gonzales.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Adrian Gonzales, Assistant Superintendent\/Vice President, Student Services, talks to Pepper during an unveiling ceremony on campus. Photo by Melinda Finn.<\/p><\/div>\n

To start, Pepper has been programmed with more than 800 questions that students are likely to ask\u2014\u201cHow do I apply for financial aid?\u201d for example, or, \u201cWhere\u2019s the bookstore?\u201d The robots are linked to a network of tablet computers spread across campus, all programmed to answer the same questions.<\/p>\n

Ismael Blas is a Palomar College student and Peer Mentor who works closely with Pepper as part of of the Orientation Follow-Up Services Department. He said he is looking forward to introducing the robot to the campus community, having seen what it can do in the weeks leading up to Pepper\u2019s debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a learning curve, because none of us have really engaged with robots. So we\u2019re going to be teaching students how to engage with it,\u201d said Blas. \u201cI remember when I was younger and everyone was talking about computers\u2014how every home was going to have one. Now we don\u2019t even think about that, we have them in our pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fabiola Hernandez, also a Peer Mentor, recalled the moment when Pepper was taken out of the box for the first time: \u201cIt turned on, looked around and then started to make eye contact with some of the first people that it saw,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more we have Pepper out and about on campus, the smarter she gets, and the more she\u2019s going to be able to help students,\u201d Hernandez added. \u201cShe says it herself\u2014she\u2019s going to get smarter as time goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzales said the college has invested $75,000 in the Artificial Intelligence Project, including $25,000 apiece for the robots, which are made by SoftBank Robotics and usually cost $50,000 each.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is experimental for us,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we think that this next generation of students who use smartphones and artificial intelligence, they\u2019re going to engage differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Superintendent\/President Joi Blake, Pepper represents Palomar\u2019s commitment to innovation, and to educating the global 21st century workforce.<\/p>\n

By early afternoon, Pepper had been talking and dancing and posing for several hours; batteries were running low. As Blas and a small team of handlers nestled its sleek white curves and childlike face back into the storage box, Gonzales looked forward to the possibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I get excited about is giving students yet another access point,\u201d he said. \u201cAllowing them to learn about the new technologies, and to interact with innovative tools.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Campus debut for robot that can answer questions, interact with students\u2014the first of its kind on a U.S. college campus. SAN MARCOS \u2014 On a sunny morning at Palomar College, a four-foot-tall robot named Pepper took its first turns as the mascot and team captain of Palomar\u2019s Artificial Intelligence Project. In its signature high-pitched voice,… \u00a0Continue Reading: Meet Pepper, the face of A.I. at Palomar<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10413,"featured_media":1786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,23,18],"tags":[42,43,17,16],"class_list":["post-1754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carousel","category-features","category-home","category-slider","tag-campus","tag-engagement","tag-innovation","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMeet Pepper, the face of A.I. at Palomar - Palomar News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Palomar College introduces a robot that can answer questions, interact with students\u2014the first of its kind on a U.S. college campus.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/meet-pepper\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet Pepper, the face of A.I. at Palomar - 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