MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — It's not a bird and not a plane. It's a little robot.
Pizza and college students go together like midterms and all-night study sessions.
Georgia College and State University has brought a new technology to campus that makes the two meeting easier, and students are eating it up.
Classes started Monday and so did the pizza bots. Sodexo, which partners with the university, has invested in 10 of these bots that will be delivering pizza, snacks and drinks all over campus. They even have names, like Barnacle.
“Kiwibot is our AI delivery robot,” Campus Dining's General Manager Sam Fernandez said.
He says they just started rolling out on West Campus.
“The students can order Pizza Hut items. We also have a convenience store. They can order things like medicine or toiletries,” he explained.
It's for convenience.
“They never really get tired. You can place an order and the bots will be there in less than 15 minutes,” Fernandez said.
But he says that it also is there to comfort them.
“Because food reminds us of home, right?” Fernandez said.
So, it’s comfort food.
“Pizza is great. Pizza is just killer,” freshman Brendan Rigsbee said.
“My friends make fun of me for getting pizza almost every time I come in here,” freshman Jacob Speece said.
He says it’s a comfort for freshmen like him who may be missing home.
“First time being without them, so it reminds me of home also because we have a Pizza Hut at home,” Speece laughs.
Freshman Alex Pinto says he's already tried it.
“I've already ordered some pizza on it, it's pretty good,” he said. “It was really easy to get my food. You just slide it open, it opens up. Everything was nice. It was really quick."
So, this new technology makes it convenient.
“I have a lot of friends coming over this weekend and could use food, and I don't want to have to drive to go pick it all up,” freshman Jackson Ivan said. “So I feel like getting it delivered would be a better idea."
It will perhaps bring comfort to people in a new place.
“My roommate and I got pizza and we sat down in my bed and we each had our little pizzas and we watched tv together, and that to me was home-y to me,” sophomore Jane Carr said.
Fernandez says the bots will begin to deliver food on the main campus in January.
He says they're planning on expanding their fleet from 10 bots to 15 if the demand is there.