RET Site: Research Experience on Edge Artificial Intelligence for Nevada Teachers

About the Site

Supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the RET Site: Research Experience on Edge Artificial Intelligence for Nevada Teachers (EdgeAI RET Site) offers a six-week summer research training opportunity for Nevada's K–14 educators. The program will run annually from 2026 through 2028.

News

July 2026 — First Summer Program Completed

Eight Nevada teachers completed six weeks of research and curriculum development at UNR, producing three research posters and eight classroom curriculum packages.

Best Poster Award

Congratulations to Jeremy Hight, Michelle Hollis, and Debra Ranft! Their poster, “Living on the Edge-AI,” received the Best Poster Award at the 2026 NSF Virtual RET Site Participant Poster Session. All three research teams presented at the event.

Summer 2027

Application details for the next cohort will be announced on this website.

Mission and Goals

Inspired by the urgent need to advance STEM education in Nevada, the EdgeAI RET Site aims to offer a comprehensive and immersive research experience on the transformative technology of Edge AI. It is designed to equip Nevada teachers with the knowledge, skills, and resources necessary to integrate Edge AI concepts effectively into their classrooms, which can enhance STEM education and better prepare students to engage with the rapidly evolving technological landscape.

Image from https://www.mediatek.com/tek-talk-blogs/what-is-edge-ai-and-why-is-it-critical-for-next-generation-iot

Edge Artificial Intelligence

Deploying AI on Edge Devices

Image from https://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2023/nevadateach-stem-classroom

Nevada Teachers

Engaging Teachers in Real-World Research

Future K-14 Classrooms

Bringing Edge AI to K-14 Curriculum Development

Host Institution and Mentor Team

The EdgeAI RET Site is hosted by the College of Engineering at the UNR and led by Dr. Rui Hu (PI) and Dr. Lei Yang (Co-PI) from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE).

University of Nevada, Reno

UNR is a comprehensive doctoral university, classified as an R1 institution with very high research activity by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. UNR is dedicated to engaging K-12 students and teachers through various outreach initiatives.

College of Engineering

The College of Engineering (CoE) at UNR is distinguished by its strengths in artificial intelligence and data science, advanced computing and engineering systems, sustainable energy and infrastructure, and impactful interdisciplinary research.

Our Mentor Team

The mentor team comprises 10 faculty from the CSE and Electrical & Biomedical Engineering (EBME) departments of CoE and the College of Education and Human Development at UNR.

Program Overview

The Edge AI RET Site at the University of Nevada, Reno is a three-year summer research program (2026–2028) that provides Nevada grades 6–14 educators with immersive, hands-on experience in cutting-edge Edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. Each summer, eight selected teachers will participate in a six-week, on-site research program focused on AI, machine learning, IoT systems, robotics, and real-world smart infrastructure applications.

Participants receive a $13,000 stipend for the six-week program, along with additional support for classroom materials, equipment, software, and instructional resources to help translate lab experiences into engaging, standards-aligned learning modules for students.

Working alongside UNR faculty and graduate mentors, teachers will use a custom-built SmartEdge testbed to explore real-world applications such as AI vision security, wildfire smoke detection, and secure edge-cloud language-model inference. In addition to conducting research, participants will develop classroom-ready curriculum modules aligned with Nevada STEM standards, enabling direct transfer of research experiences into K-14 classrooms.

The program emphasizes professional development, interdisciplinary collaboration, and workforce pipeline development. Through sustained academic-year follow-up activities, the RET Site builds a statewide community of educators equipped to inspire the next generation of STEM innovators.

How to Apply

Summer 2026 applications are closed. Our inaugural cohort completed the program on July 24, 2026.

Summer 2027

Application dates, program dates, and application instructions will be announced on this website.

Who Should Apply

Middle school, high school, and community college STEM educators in Nevada (Grades 6–14) who are interested in AI, IoT, robotics, or emerging technologies and can commit to full-time participation in a six-week summer research program.

Questions? Contact ruihu@unr.edu.

Research Projects

Summer 2026 Research Projects

Eight teachers worked in three teams using the shared SmartEdge testbed, with faculty and graduate mentorship connecting research with classroom teaching.

AI Vision Security

Anastacia Suarez and Frankie Clark investigated how changes to visual tokens affect a cloud-edge vision-language model. Their project connected AI vision, data integrity, and cybersecurity.

Wildfire Smoke Detection

Erin Schneiderman, Katherine Silva-Sampaio, and Ismail Kullap prepared fire-camera images and evaluated AI models for wildfire smoke detection. Their work connected dataset quality, computer vision, and environmental monitoring.

Secure Edge-Cloud Language-Model Inference

Jeremy Hight, Michelle Hollis, and Debra Ranft investigated collaborative language-model inference, speculative decoding, and data integrity. Their poster, “Living on the Edge-AI,” received the Best Poster Award at the 2026 NSF Virtual RET Site Participant Poster Session.

All three teams presented their posters at the 2026 NSF Virtual RET Site Participant Poster Session on July 28–29, 2026. Each teacher also developed classroom instructional materials.

Summer 2026 Highlights

8 Nevada teachers • 3 research teams • 8 curriculum packages • 3 poster presentations

Eight Nevada teachers completed the first six-week EdgeAI RET summer program at the University of Nevada, Reno, June 15–July 24, 2026. Working with faculty and graduate research mentors, participants investigated AI vision security, wildfire smoke detection, and secure edge-cloud language-model inference using the SmartEdge testbed. Each teacher developed instructional materials connecting their research experience with classroom teaching.

All three teams presented at the 2026 NSF Virtual RET Site Participant Poster Session. “Living on the Edge-AI,” by Jeremy Hight, Michelle Hollis, and Debra Ranft, received the Best Poster Award.

Continued Classroom Support

Teachers retain supported access to SmartEdge after the summer program for project-related classroom demonstrations. The program continues to support connections between university research and school instruction.

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