Rooz: Hello everyone! Once again, thanks for joining us in this, as you know, recorded interview. We are part of this two-day Marathon, fifth WAICY 2022, virtually in my sweet home, home sweet home of Pittsburgh and also on the ground, as you saw this amazing teams. Over 80 people are participating live, physically, on the grounds of Cal’s campus in Saudi Arabia. This is truly a global event. We have what? 14 time zones as of now? 107 countries participating and guess what? We are joined by one of the best and brightest in the AI education industry, co-founder of AutoAuto: Joyce, thanks so much for joining us!
Joyce: Thanks for having me, Rooz! Yeah, I’m so excited for another WAICY.
Rooz: I’m so excited! I remember you participated in our last non-virtual WAICY which actually was taking place in Pittsburgh and you brought this amazing technology with you. You brought the car, you were teaching kids how autonomous cars are working, but let me stop there. Tell the world a little bit about you, about AutoAuto. You are by training a computer scientist, you have a PhD in Computer Science and then you also have this amazing company, so why don’t we tell the world about Joyce and AutoAuto?
Joyce: Thank you Rooz! Yeah, I’m Joyce, I’m from Brazil and I have been in US for like 14 years. I came here for my PhD in Mathematics, actually Mathematics Rooz, and rock climbing and 6 years ago, we founded AutoAuto. We created this product which is a mini self-driving car and a course surrounding this car to really get kids excited about STEM; for them to feel like STEM is a possibility for them, you know? Even if they don’t want to go through that pathway later on. We want them to feel comfortable about it, you know? Whatever they want to do it’s possible, but it just requires a little bit of practicing and it’s good to practice with something fun. And so, I’m particularly excited to bring Brazilians to WAICY this year. We’re supporting anybody from Brazil who wants to do the WAICY and super excited to get more people from my country excited about STEM and excited about, in particular, artificial intelligence and programming.
Rooz: That’s amazing! You’ve done such a fantastic job! For those of you that don’t know about AutoAuto, what Joyce does, go to autoauto.ai. You can see it, the link to Joyce’s website, at the bottom of this video. And you’re doing some really cool stuff, you have good curriculum, you’re teaching kids about Python… Tell us a little bit about the experience of AutoAuto in the classroom and outside of the classroom. And, also, for educators that are watching us today, from all around the world, please tell them about how they can reach out to you, what do you like to accomplish with them, around the world, and what should that look like.
Joyce: Thank you, yes, absolutely! So, AutoAuto is for every kid from 3rd grade and up. And they do the course in a self-paced manner. We have video-based lessons because we know that those subjects are hard to understand sometimes and it’s a new technology, so we are not expecting the teachers to know every new technology that comes out there. So, we’re here to equip the teachers with anything they need, so we have a learning platform that’s hosting this video-based course that the students can do at their own pace. We want them, mainly, to have fun as they learn. That’s the best way to learn, learn by doing and so that’s why we thought of a hardware back, six years ago. Nowadays, we also have a virtual part of this, a virtual simulator of the AutoAuto car. So, this brings some affordability, so the classrooms can have less physical cars and it’s more possible for every classroom, including in a different country. So, we can have kids in Brazil just doing the virtual simulator, if they don’t have, on their hands, a physical car right now; for example, to do the competition or even to learn about this course. We have the course in English, Spanish and Portuguese, so this also helps the kids from Brazil to get excited, you know, and we are giving all the support they need to be able to compete in this next WAICY.
Rooz: That’s amazing!
Joyce: I think in the year I went to Pittsburgh was to 2019. So, that’s when I met you. And I remember first interview with you there, live.
Rooz: That’s right! That’s right, I remember that! I remember that kids were coming and you brought the physical car and then there were obstacles, there were road signs and everything, so I thought it was really cool. Particularly, because Pittsburgh is one of the… For those of you that don’t know, Pittsburgh - Pennsylvania is one of the only cities in the world that allows fully autonomous cars to be tested. So, kids have been seeing it on the streets of Pittsburgh and for them to actually get to know the technology a bit better, I thought that was immensely immensely important. But Joyce, you also brought up a very good point and I think that’s something that we in the K-12 education, Tech education and in general AI education, we care about is the fact that you and your company have been able to actually navigate both the virtual product and the physical product. And that’s a very big deal for educators because you’re right, you know, sometimes the logistics of getting, in this case the hardware, the car might be more time consuming given everything going on around the world with the supply chains and logisticals and mailing and this and that. But kids or Educators can actually start using it as they’re building their competency. They can also move away, shift, migrate from a virtual car to a physical car. So, I think that’s very very very cool. So, let me ask you a few questions about your own journey. Why did you decide to get into the Edtech business? And, where this idea of AutoAuto came about? I’m guessing sometimes towards the end or after your PhD.
Joyce: That’s right! So, my journey to STEM it was not because of role models, unfortunately, and I think that’s a big part of going towards STEM. You see people on those fields and you’re going to be like them. But I came from Brazil, from a public school in Brazil, you know, from a poor community in Brazil, so I actually had one of the opportunities that excited me about STEM and it was something that you really like, Rooz. It was books! I had a couple of teachers in my street, they were teachers in mathematics and they hand out to me, one year, two books for 5th and 6th grade in mathematics. And I barely had any books at home, so I devoured those books and that was my sparkle to really love mathematics. And, you know, their role models as teachers and other teachers motivated me to become a teacher as well. So, that’s my path towards mathematics and teaching STEM and that’s why I love so much opportunities like the WAICY. Every moment counts to really get excited; you know. For me, it was those books, those teachers handing out something for me. And, you know, it could be just one hour or two of doing something fun in programming or artificial intelligence, getting motivated by a competition like the WAICY. So, I really love what you guys do and we always want to try to support as much as we can, get this to every kid in the world.
Joyce: So, always count us in.
Rooz: That’s amazing. That’s amazing. We love what you guys are doing. I think what you’re doing is really important. You have really cool materials on your website and I’m shamelessly promoting it because I think it works and I think kids around the world should be using it. So, educators go to autoauto.ai and contact Joyce. You can set up a time with her. She’s cool, trust me. You can set up a time with her, 15 minute call, 30 minute call. Let a computer scientist, let someone who knows this very well to be part of your journey because I think it’s very important. Also, Joyce we have a lot of parents that are watching this, you know, a lot of parents have been, sometimes, pushing kids to do competitions. By the way, I said it on the records, I say it again: I’m not encouraging any parents pushing kids to do competitions because they should encourage them to be part of a big conversations, but in a way (…) solve problems the way they see the world or the way they like to solve problems. And we’re just hoping to use a little bit of technology as tools in order to enable them to solve some of those problems as the way they perceive it. But what is your message to parents that are watching us from around the world?
Joyce: Yeah, I love seeing parents that are motivating their kids into STEM even though that’s not their field. I have seen that and they can see how important that is, you know, and I appreciate that. I love it. But, you know, it is STEM. We gotta always be careful, not doing too much at once because we really don’t want to scare the kids away. So, just keep in mind that, you know, little steps. Getting them excited little by little, get them to be interested in little by little, so we can get them there. Yeah, just basically, I think that’s what we’re trying to be. Very careful. That smooth beginning, you know. Getting them very excited, but not get them to be scared of STEM at any point. And I have seen that unfortunately, I’ve seen, as I was teaching mathematics. First, I was seeing even nine-year-olds very afraid of mathematics already. So, we really want it to be fun for them and to be interesting and let them take their time to learn.
Rooz: That’s amazing, that’s amazing. I couldn’t agree with you more. You know Joyce, it is customary… This is the World Artificial Intelligence Competition for Youth (WAICY) and we have kids, as I said, from over 107 countries participating, 14 different time zones and the language that we use, typically, to communicate is English, but we all speak different languages and I like for you to have the last words to our audience, for our Portuguese speaking audience in Brazil and elsewhere in Portuguese. So, the floor is yours.
Joyce: Absolutely!
[Translated from Brazilian Portuguese] Joyce: Folks from Brazil! Let’s participate! Let’s come, participate and see what the WAICY is. I think this is a very big opportunity for you to learn a little bit about programming, a little bit about artificial intelligence. And we’re here to give you all the support you need, right? So, count on us and come play with it. You don’t have to be afraid of these areas, right? Little by little you’ll learn. Thanks!
Rooz: Thank you! Thank you so much for your time! Thank you Joyce for your time! For those of us watching us from all over the world and particularly joining us from Brazil. I’m glad that you’re here! And for those of us that want to learn more about AutoAuto, click on the link at the bottom of this video. And this is WAICY day. I should say WAICY weekend; the two-day Marathon on December 3rd and 4th. Glad to have you here! And stay tuned, we’re gonna have so many exciting projects coming up and we’re gonna have so many exciting interviews coming up. Once again, thanks so much for joining WAICY 2022, the 5th WAICY and two-day WAICY marathon.
More about the WAICY 2022: https://www.autoauto.ai/event/waicy2022/