<p>I'm preparing to go to college and study something related to Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, etc, and I'd like to know what schools are good for this at the undergraduate level.</p>
<p>Interests
I have a particular interest in AI (including biological neural network simulation, logic, etc.), with a background in software, and I like robotics for various reasons.
The main reason is that it is a multi-disciplinary field, and I've always had a widespread set of interests. Not only does robotics itself cover the fields of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer science (which themselves are fairly broad), but it is my belief that the use of robotics and AI will spread to all industries (it is already in many/most of them) - which means that I could potentially explore other areas of interest like biotech, etc., through robotics.
Another reason is my passion for building things, which should be satisfied (if that's possible) by the software, hardware, and systems design and construction.</p>
<p>While I am interested in non-medical neuroscience (especially computational), it is difficult at this time to predict the economic viability of pursuing it alone as a main focus.
Robotics, on the other hand, lends itself easily to commercialization with direct applications in industry, research, medicine, and defense (as well as allowing me to dabble in related scientific fields like computational neuroscience).</p>
<p>Also, I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes, but I may or may not be interested in pursuing a graduate degree after my bachelor's (leaning more towards "no", but that may change).</p>
<p>Schools Looked At So Far
So far, two schools are in my short list: CMU (Carnegie Mellon) and WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute).</p>
<p>There are a lot of cool things happening at the CMU Robotics Institute for graduates and this seems to trickle down to the undergrad programs (through various undergraduate classes and an Undergraduate Minor in Robotics). If I went there, I'd probably go for a BS in CS (building on my software experience) with the Minor in Robotics (although I might consider something else like BSECE with a Minor in Robotics and some other compsci courses - it might be good to go more after ECE to complement my software experience).</p>
<p>WPI is really interesting in that it actually offers a Bachelor's in Robotics Engineering, which seems to be an intense, multi-disciplinary program that really focuses on the integration of the multiple disciplines. Integration of different specialties is something I always felt should be my personal strength (to allow me to lead others, who may be more specialized, to a common goal, as well as to enable me to design such goals).
Like CMU, their entire robotics program also has that geeky-coolness factor. Their project-oriented teaching (I think it might be considered liberal) of seems to be a nice fit, but I'm not sure. If I went there, I'd probably major in Robotics Engineering and focus in AI/software.</p>
<p>I found a few others, too, but I'd like to get others' input.</p>
<p>So: What other schools and programs might fit my interests?</p>
<p>Thanks, and sorry about the long post.</p>