It doesn’t chat, gossip, or grumble about homework — but De Pere High School’s newest addition is already the talk of campus.
The school has invested $89,000 in a new autonomous floor scrubber, part of a growing wave of artificial intelligence tools making their way into education.
Meet “Big Red”
District leaders recently unveiled the machine, nicknamed Big Red after a student-led naming contest. Capable of scrubbing, squeegeeing, and sanitizing floors for up to six hours without a break, the device is designed to maintain cleanliness while freeing up custodial staff for other important work.
“We call it a Cobot here, because it’s a coworker,” said Noah Wetland, De Pere’s Building and Grounds Director…