Particularly in Germany, with its world-leading automotive industry, it is of utmost importance that students - the decision-makers and shapers of tomorrow - can already engage with the future topic of AI and learn in-depth about its technical foundations and social & ethical dimensions. Well-trained teachers and the availability of up-to-date and qualitative teaching materials play a central role in this.

As part of the EU-funded project “Introducing AI to Vocational Schools in Europe”, the TUM PhD students developed a new course on AI and mobility last year and now had the opportunity to pass on the teaching material to motivated teachers, thereby creating a multiplier effect.

The teacher training on "Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Driving" took place - thematically fitting - at the Munich Data Science Institute (MDSI) of the TU Munich on the research campus Garching and was led by Leon Hetzel (PhD student TU Munich), Arne Nix (PhD student University of Tübingen) and Nicolas Berberich (PhD student TU Munich). After theoretical and practical introductions to the basics, history and algorithms of artificial intelligence and autonomous driving, the highlight of the course was programming mobile robots.

Using machine learning methods, the participating teachers successfully trained their robots, equipped with cameras and GPUs, to drive along a roadway and avoid obstacles.