No, he's not a student there, he was built there.
According to the article linked above, he took a year to build and "can recognize numbers, remember lists and write them down. It even passes some basic aspects of an IQ test."
Scared? Wait, there's more.
He has "2.5 million simulated neurons organized into subsystems to resemble the prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia, thalamus and other cognitive machinery in the brain. It also has a simulated eye that can see, and an arm that draws."
An eye? An arm that draws? How fast does he draw? Rather than Shaun of the Dead, this is Dead-eye Spaun. I can imagine him whirling an iron at the OK Corral. This is one bot I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.
I notice the amygdala is missing. How is Spaun supposed to know where the real threats are coming from without it? Or does that mean they built him to be fearless?
I sense a new arcade game here. You vs. Dead-eye Spaun, the Brain from Waterloo. Hope Napoleon isn't reading this.
“A robot that is able to navigate through a city and deliver a package from one place to another, I think that kind of thing will be within reach in the next 10 years.” says Chris Eliasmith, Spaun's inventor.
Give that robot an eye and an quick drawing arm, and move over Dirty Harry. What's robot for "Make my day?"