Robotics

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>I'm wondering how I should focus my mechanical engineering degree into robotics. I don't really care to do electrical & computer engineering because I'm not much of a programmer person (I'm good at math but programming is boring). More into building things and such. At Carnegie they have a robotics minor/specialization deal available to all engineering majors. I figure I'll go for it and also join the robotics club there. Just wondering on any advice? What kind of jobs can I get working with robots anyway? I like to think as a mechanical engineer I won't be limited in jobs, that I can move around more from robots to auto to aero. It's just that robots are a lot of fun. Would research help? They have some interesting projects there. </p>

<p>Also, they have this program where I can get my masters in an extra year after my bachelors. I'm trying to decide if I should go for that. Would it help? I can do robot research while there.</p>

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<p>all robots are machines
not all machines are robots</p>

<p>DS kinda fell into robotics in his present job by making machines at CMU. He does some programming to make drivers and I/O controls. </p>

<p>Sophisticated programming for algorithms, algorithm development are left to others.</p>

3

<p>Usually, doing those 4+1 BS/MS programs is a great idea. It can save you time and money and get you into the workforce faster.</p>

<p>The question about robotics is more complex. You can do a great deal in robotics as a mechanical or electrical engineer, or even a computer scientist. It all just depends on what portion of robotics you want to work in. Do you want to actually build the things, program the things, or design the circuitry that makes it all work? That is a pretty oversimplified view of it, but really, there are various parts that go into robots, all of which are most suited to a different type of engineer.</p>

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<p>I think I’d be more into building. Maybe design circuitry. I don’t mind programming, it’s just not something I care to do.</p>

<p>DS means son right? So he worked at CMU? How cool. I hope to work on robots there, it seems pretty intense.</p>

5

<p>almost. He did undergrad work, for credit, for a ME professor, who later became his advisor. His interest is in human-computer-interaction/interface (HCI). IOW, building successful devices and gadgets. </p>

<p>I would imagine that a FIRST Robotics person would run circles around him. But given a problem, he probably could come up with a working prototype fairly quickly.</p>

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<p>I’m an engineer who works in robotics. I did my undergrad in mechanical and my masters in robotics (mostly a mix on mechanical and computer science courses). You can get a job in robotics with many different degrees…we have mechanical, electrical, computer science, and computer engineers who work in our company. I should mention that you probably will have to learn to program (at least a little) if you are pursuing robotics. A lot of courses in robotics will require you not only to design and build your bot, but also write code to control it. For example, in one mechanical engineering grad course i took, we not only learned about the dynamics and control of a mobile robot, but we also had to write code to apply this theory to a simulated robot.</p>

<p>Feel free to PM me if you want more info.</p>

7

<p>I’m not sure if this is pertinent to the chat, but my school is trying to find grants for the FRC competition? I tried to google for a list of grants, but couldn’t help any. anyone know of any grants? (i know about the NASA grant already)
any other fundraising ideas?</p>

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<p>^ try asking local engineering/computer companies for money. I was on a team and that was how they raised most of their money</p>