WPI creates robotics engineering program
Worcester Polytechnic Institute will offer the nation's first bachelor's degree program in robotics engineering starting in the fall of '07.
Students in the program, which is to be offered jointly by the Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering Depts., will study the fundamental elements of those fields. Students will take their learnings and apply them to designing and building robots and robotic systems for a variety of applications. The program will also incorporate an entrepreneurship course to help students take robotic ideas and incorporate them into business models.
The new program stems out of a growing demand for robots and robotic systems in industries such as security and defense, elder care, automation of household tasks and other fields. It was developed by an advisory board of over 150 companies, institutions, and research labs in the Commonwealth, including Helen Greiner, chairman of iRobot Corp. in Burlington, the developer of the Roomba floor-cleaning robot system.
The robotics engineering program will be taught by a collection of over 20 associated faculty and staff members, and will draw upon the school's involvement in robotics competitions over the past 15 years.
A final review of the program is slated for February of next year, and is the third interdisciplinary undergraduate major developed by WPI in the past two years.
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