BEHIND THE ENGINEERING
ROBOTICS PROGRAM OPENS DOORS FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS
A first-of-its-kind program aims to keep up with growing demand for young robotics professionals.
Written by Cassandra Kelly
A first-of-its-kind undergraduate robotics program at the University of Texas at Austin allows high school students to apply directly as part of their freshman admissions application. Photo: University of Texas at Austin
AS ROBOTICS CONTINUE TO BECOME synonymous with everyday living, industries from aerospace to healthcare are looking for new ways to adopt the technology. But to successfully do so, they’ll need qualified professionals.
“The misconception is that you have to have a Ph.D. to work on robots,” said Sridevi Rao, managing director of Texas Robotics at the University of Texas at Austin. “But a lot of the actual day to day mechanics of it are simple. Anybody could be taught how to use them.”
To keep up with the growing demand for young robotics professionals, academic institutions across the country are launching undergraduate major programs. The University of Texas at Austin is doing things a little differently: Instead of a full major, the university has launched a minor program that is flexible and easy to adapt to other majors such as mechanical engineering and computer science. This is also the first undergraduate honors robotics program in the country that allows high school students to apply directly as part of their first-year admissions applications.
“We want to give them the ability to immediately leave undergrad ready to contribute to the robotics workforce,” explained Peter Stone, director of Texas Robotics. “We’re talking with industry partners on exactly what they think will be important, so these students will have a leg up, and will be more prepared than many other students when they get there.”
This program will integrate students on day one by providing a “Living and Learning Community,” where they’ll be able to live together in the same dorm. The university is also looking into whether some robots could be in the dorm space with students, to create an even more immersive experience, Stone added.
Students will collaborate in a cohort of peers studying robotics while gaining entrance to organizations, clubs, and access to Texas Robotics events. Photo: University of Texas at Austin
Students will receive hands-on experience at UT’s world-class robotics facilities at the Anna Hiss Gymnasium, which has popular robots including “Spot,” the Boston Dynamic four-legged rover, “Astro,” an Amazon human-assisted robot, “Brainy,” a wheelchair controlled by a brain-machine interface, “Da Vinci,” a surgical robot, and more than 30 other robots.
“Students come in and learn how to operate those robots and how to reprogram them,” Stone said. “They will also learn the underlying robotics programming languages and operating systems, and by the end of that freshman spring semester, they’ll have the option to start a research project.”
Understanding that many high school students do not have access to robotics programs or clubs, Rao explained that admission into the UT program is based on interest, not on prior experience.
“In creating the essay question for the application, we decided not to ask them to tell us about their prior robotics projects, but rather what captivates them about robots and the impact they hope to make in the field,” she said.
Stone is eager to see how their interdisciplinary approach will unfold. The program’s courses are sorted by topical buckets, ranging from hardware to artificial intelligence and machine learning, spanning across multiple departments. Through a gateway course, students will be placed into cohorts.
“These cohorts will include students from different backgrounds, such as mechanical engineers, computer scientists, electrical engineers, and aerospace engineers,” Stone added. “By putting them together in a class and giving them a common foundation, we hope that they can collaborate in meaningful ways. So, computer science students can help the engineering students improve their programming skills and vice versa—the engineering students can help the computer science students to understand circuit design, and so on.”
“We want to give them the ability to immediately leave undergrad ready to contribute to the robotics workforce.”
Peter Stone, director, Texas Robotics
Siddharth Thakur was able to transform what he learned in a robotics program during his time as a UT electrical engineering student into a full-fledged company, Paradigm Robotics. The goal of Paradigm is to develop robotic solutions for firefighting, disaster response, industrial/manufacturing, and other industries. “UT has been and is a fantastic partner throughout the ideation, development, building, and scaling of Paradigm Robotics,” Thakur said. “From leveraging UT’s vast resources of entrepreneurial organizations, to securing funding, finding faculty, and expert knowledge, working with and leveraging UT facilities and equipment, to partnering with laboratories and researchers, to finding talent and various opportunities for exposure and connections. I think building a startup at a university is the best place and time to do so, especially a hardware one.”
Thakur was involved in numerous projects throughout his student career, from UT’s first combat robotics league to co-founding Gazelle Ecosolutions, where students are building software to catalyze global conservation efforts.
“I’ve been exposed to a diverse and wide range of thoughts,” Thakur said. “I’ve grown and changed as a person.”
UT’s development of an accessible, flexible, and interdisciplinary program will create new opportunities for young people in the ever-expanding world of robotics.
“This program might open doors to you that you never even thought about,” Thakur added. “Or they might lead you down a path to another door of more opportunities.”
Cassandra Kelly is a technology writer in Columbus, Ohio.
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