AI-Powered Innovations Transforming STEM Learning in Sports Broadcasting

In the fast-evolving media industry, Artificial Intelligence (AI), immersive technologies, and robotics are no longer limited to back-end functions. They are now central to reshaping audience experiences in real time.

In April 2025, during an Indian Premier League match between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals at Arun Jaitley Stadium, a novel robotic dog camera named Champak made its debut. Developed by wTVision in collaboration with the BCCI, Champak quickly became a sensation. Within 48 hours, it garnered over 5.8 million views, 560,000 likes, and 72,000 shares on social media. However, beyond the headlines, Champak stands as a case study in how STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics—can deliver impact in live broadcasting and entertainment.

Champak is a convergence of AI, robotics, and computer vision. Its dog-like form is suitable for the robot's agility and mobility on uneven cricket grounds, making it both functional and relatable. The control mechanisms and point-of-view video are managed through Radio Frequency-based protocols, supported by a range of cameras and sensors. These components allow it to sense its surroundings using sensor fusion, where multiple data inputs are processed together to navigate and react in real time.

The platform’s movements are programmed through control systems and kinematics, drawing from both structural and electrical engineering. A custom-built camera gimbal, designed using PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) controllers, ensures video stabilization even as the robot mimics natural motion. Every element, from 3D printed enclosures to object detection using AI models like YOLO (You Only Look Once), shows how deeply engineering and mathematics are embedded in its design.

Champak is not just a novelty. It demonstrates what is possible when STEM is applied in context: a real-world environment with live variables, audiences, and broadcast constraints. Its success invites deeper conversations about the role of practical, cross-disciplinary innovation in media.

While the spotlight often stays on what happens on screen, there is growing educational potential in what happens behind it. Tools like Champak are excellent reference points for students and educators alike. From robotics and AI programming to video processing, HRI (Human-Robotic Interaction), actuator design, and camera stabilization, the platform offers a versatile foundation for hands-on STEM learning.

Educators can create learning tasks across disciplines such as computer vision, sensor integration, motion planning, and ethics in AI. For students, seeing such applications outside the laboratory, especially in relatable spaces like cricket, can help dissolve the idea that STEM is abstract or purely academic.

In a time when young people are exploring emerging careers, this shift in how STEM is presented is important. Systems like Champak break the stereotype related to robotics by making technology emotionally engaging. One viral moment captured this beautifully, when MS Dhoni lifted Champak off the field, it felt natural, not mechanical. That level of design thinking encourages students to see empathy and interactivity as central to engineering.

The integration of systems like Champak also points to how the sports broadcasting industry itself is evolving. Traditional boundaries between hardware, software, and storytelling are blurring. Professionals in this space must now be fluent in multiple disciplines such as broadcast operations, real-time programming, mechanical design, and data science, if they are to design experiences that are both technically sound and emotionally rich.

The rise of roles such as spatial computing engineers, broadcast UX designers, and AI operations specialists underlines this transformation. As broadcasting becomes increasingly interactive and intelligent, STEM-trained individuals will find a growing number of pathways into what was once considered a creative-only field.

With advancement comes responsibility. Champak, like many AI systems, prompts important conversations around privacy and surveillance. Its ability to integrate with other video capture tools could, in different contexts, raise ethical concerns. While such systems can enhance safety, they can also be used in ways that compromise individual rights.

This duality makes Champak an ideal subject for case-based learning in ethics and policy. By examining how such technologies operate in public spaces, students can explore not only how to build systems but also how to build them responsibly.

The future of sports broadcasting is being shaped by intelligent, adaptive systems built at the intersection of engineering and storytelling. Developments like Champak offer more than technical milestones; they can open up tangible learning opportunities, influence industry standards, and spark a deeper appreciation for what STEM can achieve when applied creatively. For students, educators, and media professionals, this is a chance to reimagine the field not just as an entertainment platform but as a live, interactive classroom for the future.