<p>It would appear that Carnegie-Mellon is the obvious leader in the field of robotics. While a lot of that reputation may stem from its graduate programs, presumably it filters down into the undergraduate engineering and computer science programs as well to make it a leader in the field.</p>
<p>I'm looking for guidance on what other schools would be considered strong in the interdisciplinary field of robotics (I think of it as a mixture of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science). Either those schools with dedicated minors in robotics (I doubt there are any "majors" in robotics unless it is student-created in a school with a flexible curriculum), a solid number of courses that relate to the field, or institutes or labs that focus on robotics.</p>
<p>Worcester Polytechnic Institute has a robotics engineering program. (I plan on applying to it for Spring 2010 transfer). AFAIK it is the only undergraduate robotics program.</p>
<p>Worcester Polytechnic Institute has a robotics major but the stats from ASEE call enrollment database seems odd.
women Men Total
Freshman 4 28 32
Sophomore 3 37 40
Junior 1 21 22
Senior 0 3 3</p>
<p>ie - where did they all go? AERO enrollment cuts in half over 4 years, but MechEng increases.</p>
<p>I went poking through ASEE to see what other schools had robotics and was not successful. I did notice that Carnegie Mellon did NOT have a undergrad major or minor in robotics. None of the freshman engineering intro courses have “robotics” in their course descriptions. In fact a non-exhaustive search of the whole undergrad catalog shows strong departmental lines between Mech and Electric. </p>
<p>I’m not so sure that you can assume that the graduate level Robotics Institute filters down to the undergrad level. </p>
<p>That said, has anyone pulled the US NEW and World Report list of best robotic schools/undergrad, or checked Peterson’s.</p>
<p>So, if I am interpreting this correctly, they have basically discontinued the minor. Once all of the currently enrolled students are gone the minor sort of fades away?</p>
<p>Peterson’s does not list robotics listed as a major</p>
<p>But very problematic, ABET, the engineering certification organization, does not list a single Robotics Engineering certified program. It lists 29 types of certified engineering programs, and 4 pages of “other” certified programs, but not a single robotics program. </p>
<p>Now a know that Danel Webster has a robotics major, as a sub set of the gaming/cs/robotics program, but a student I spoke with said that the only robotics component was a single elective in junior year. The odd part was that the first MECH ENG project for freshman was a simple intelligent choice robot.</p>
<p>I think what they mean by “Current CMU Students” is that only degree-seeking students at CMU can enroll in the minor. I think that stops stuff like people from Pitt seeking a minor that way or something. The Minor page still looks like it’s existing as it was updated last about a year ago (it also shows you which classes can be taken for a robotics minor). [Robotics</a> Institute: Undergraduate Minor in Robotics](<a href=“http://www.ri.cmu.edu/education/ugrad_minor.html]Robotics”>Academic Programs - Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University)</p>
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<p>There’s actually a good deal of robotics done at the undergrad level at CMU. There’s no freshman course in it, because CMU requires all freshman engineering students to take two Intro Engineering courses with the choices of Chemical, Civil, Electrical & Computer, Materials, Mechanical, Engineering & Public Policy, and Biomedical (the last two are only available as double majors).</p>
<p>I think there are both people in ECE and MechE that take classes in robotics, and remember Mechatronics being a very popular field. I think that’s the class where you build a robot to compete in the Mobot Challenge.</p>
<p>There’s also lots of opportunities to work on robots for research. One of my friends was part of one of the robocup teams where he got to program passing/shooting routines. He also wrote avoidance technologies for vehicles (They used to test them out with this golf cart they’d ride in Schenley Park, start going full speed towards a tree, and then bail out and hope the cart would know to avoid it.). Another friend worked on reconnaissance robots for military applications. There’s also an extremely strong robotics club which will take anybody interested in joining.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input so far. It seems we have resolved that there is a minor at CMU and an opportunity to get involved in robotics there, even at the undergrad level. We’ve also identified some other schools that are active. How about others too where you have a critical mass of courses that will allow you to pursue that interest?</p>
<p>Robotics or “mechanization” has many aspects: Mechanical Aspects. Interface, Control, Materials, Feedback, Logic, Algorithmic, Statistical, and probably a lot more. </p>
<p>DS did robotics/mechanical as a research assistant , undergrad ME at CarnegieMellon, and had an association with the Robotics Institute. He tried to put emphasis into Design. He did interface work as a Toronto grad student and Microsoft post grad. Now he is working at U of Washington, dept of CS, doing more robotics stuff. His degrees were in Mechanical and CS.</p>
<p>UPenn ([GRASP</a> Laboratory of Robotics Research and Education @ Penn](<a href=“http://grasp.upenn.edu/]GRASP”>http://grasp.upenn.edu/)). There are a lot of professors that research in the GRASP lab so many of the courses have a robotics flavor to them even if they aren’t directly related to the field (i.e. Intro mechanical design).</p>
<p>I think that the program was created very recently, and the seniors are only there via transfer. But I’m not sure about that. The robotics department does not presently have a dedicated building (although it has dedicated labs), but there was some talk of turning Alumni Gym into a robotics building.</p>
<p>I have been looking up information on college robotics from the control theory / AI side and this is what I have found so far:</p>
<p>CalTech - minor in Control and Dynamic Systems
CMU - you already have info on
Johns Hopkins - EE Specialization in Robotics
RPI - Comp & Sys Eng, specialization in Automatic Control and Robotics
WashU St. Louis - Robotics Minor</p>
<p>Many other schools have classes available in robotics, mechatronics, control theory, etc. that could be used to specialize a EE/ME degree in the direction you are interested, just without the title on the degree.</p>
<p>if you go into EE at USC i know you can pick a robotics concentration. the way it works here is everyone takes standard lower division courses in EE, then when you get into upper division you pick a concentration, one of which is Controls and Robotics. We also have a dedicated robotics team.</p>
<p>What do people think about Vanderbilt (three robotics labs listed on their website affiliated with the School of Engineering) and Rice (two robotics labs listed there that I found)?</p>
<p>DS did ME at CMU with credit hour work (1 unit/term, 3 years) for a ME professor in robotics. Prof made him an offer to come to Udub as staff member in CS-robotics. </p>
<p>Right Place, Right Time, Right Prof.</p>
<p>There seems to be many opportunities at many schools. Build a strong undergrad foundation.
Become more expert in MS.</p>