<p>The numbers look odd because the program is new! So the first year they created the major, only a few people were interested in switching into it, but then year by year more people signed up for it. Right now it is one of the most popular majors at WPI.</p>
<p>I am attending Arizona State University Polytechnic right now, getting a BSE. This is an interdisciplinary engineering program. After the first 2 years of general engineering classes and support classes (calc, physics, diff eq…) we declare a primary and a secondary focus. The primary foci that are offered are mechanical, electrical, civil and now in its 2nd year robotics. I am declaring next week and will be doing my primary in robotics with the secondary focus on mechanical systems.</p>
<p>Let’s take a step back.</p>
<p>Are you sure you want to get into robotics?</p>
<p>I personally love robotics and feel that in the distant future, robotics will revolutionize the world. However, currently, the robotics industry is very small, mainly due to the high cost of even very basic robotics. The incredibly small industry does not leave much room opportunity both in terms of jobs and job variety.</p>
<p>Also, until that cost comes down, robotics will be restricted to primarily military. So you may want to make sure you’re comfortable (and eligible) to work in defense.</p>
<p>Obviously this does not apply if you plan on going into academia. (Most of the money for robotics research comes from the military too.)</p>
<p>I looked at both Carnegie Mellon and UPenn my senior year of high school, but after a lot of thinking and talking with people, I came to a different conclusion. </p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn’t go for Carnegie Mellon. I fully understand a degree from there is considered of much higher caliber than a degree from the University of South Florida, but the thing about schools like that (and this is just my opinion, not meant to offend anyone) is that schools that - schools that are known and centered mostly around their graduate schools - tend to shove their undergraduate students aside. What I mean by that is that, because they focus more on their graduate programs, they reserve their best professors, facilities, classes, and research positions for their graduate students, and because they have such a big name, they can put a hefty price tag for their undergraduate education of lesser quality (plus you have to work so much harder for it) to fund their graduate programs. I don’t know to what extent this is true or false of Carnegie Mellon, but that is how a lot of people I know and myself feel about the situation over there. </p>
<p>I’m a CompE major at USF with a concentration in Robotics and Automation, and I feel that the quality of my education so far is just right for me. My tuition never exceeds $5500 per year, and I work far less (busy work, I mean) for it than someone at Carnegie Mellon does. The pool of electives for CompE and EE are both so wide that one could make almost any concentration or minor from it. I know someone who is doing Green Energy and Sustainability, someone doing nanotechnology, and it really does seem like the possibilities here are great. </p>
<p>I’m not telling you to come to USF or anything like that, but I am telling you as a piece of advice to rethink what you think you want from your future university. I know that names like Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and such are very lucrative, but take some time to figure out what kind of education you’re looking for and what school will really fit the best. I know now that, had I gone to Carnegie Mellon, I would be unhappy right now.</p>
<p>Just gonna say that in my department at CMU (materials science) all professors taught at both the undergrad and grad level and were extremely willing to interact with undergraduate students. All facilities were open to undergrads (as long as you had a reasonable reason to use them for research purposes), and if you did research you wouldn’t be working for a grad student, but instead on your own project.</p>
<p>I’d say this sentiment was shared by my classmates in other engineering disciplines as well.</p>
<p>ABET does not accredit any graduate programs. Only Bachelor programs. Robots are so complex that you really need to have a firm basis in one of the main Engineering fields, as Robots are the most complex product a company will make.</p>
<p>Virginia Tech has the Ware Lab for Advanced Engineering and RoMeLa (robotics and mechanism laboratory). Undergraduates can work on robotics projects in both labs.</p>
<p>Since I have a high schooler interested in robotics I am posting to save the link. My DD told me last night she likes the Pacific Northwest for college. ARe there any good schools in that region for robotics?</p>
<p>^^^Interested in this as well. We all love the Pacific Northwest, and I could definitely see son settling there. He is an undergrad mech eng at a large OOS southern flagship right now, but he’s looking to do biomedical engineering, perhaps with an emphasis in robotics. I hear UWashington has an excellent biomedical engineering program, but not sure what areas of research are being done right now. It may be too big a school for son, so also interested in smaller schools with robotics/biomedical engineering programs, any region of the country.</p>
<p>I work for a robotics company, not sure I would reccomend it only because there are few US robotics companies, therefore few job opportunities. It’s not a high growth industry at the present time. I’m new to the industry, long time industry vets name CMU & RPI as top robotics schools. We also recruit from, in no particular order:</p>
<p>Cal Poly, SLO
San Jose State
CSU, Chico
Stanford
MIT
UT Arlington
UC Santa Barbara
Purdue</p>