• Font Size    
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

UNC Students To Flip Switch On New Robotics Class

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +   
Jan 4, 2009 3:04 pm US/Mountain

UNC Students To Flip Switch On New Robotics Class

By Chris Casey, Greeley Tribune
GREELEY, Colo. (AP) ― The University of Northern Colorado is known as a liberal arts college, but a few science-minded students are trying to jazz up the technology factor.

They've dialed up a lively idea: robots.

The students will flip the switch on an "Introduction to Robotics" course next semester.

"We're trying to create a middle ground of using state-of-the-art technology and robotics and keeping it student friendly," said Casey Kuhns, a senior physics major and project leader.

His team received $12,000 from the Colorado Space Grant Consortium to develop the class, after Kuhns and UNC physics professor Matthew Semak wrote the proposal. The students have a knack for building smart machines that perform humanesque functions.

The idea is to demystify the process of building and programming robots and teach the class in an unconventional way.

"We're trying to attack it kind of like a Lego format," Kuhns said. "You've got pieces and blocks and you're trying to put it together."

Kuhns and fellow student Adam Wilson began the project last summer, using high school students as guinea pigs when they set up the curriculum.

The class, which will be taught by Kuhns, Wilson and Semak, is geared for students who may not know the difference between a circuit board and a chess board.

"We're targeting the class toward students with no science background to show them that all this engineering stuff, these rocket scientists -- yeah, they're amazing people -- but you can do it if you really want to," Kuhns said. "If you are willing to put forth the effort, anybody can do this."

To keep costs down, the team used many off-the-shelf parts to build the robots.

Students will be taught how robots "think," getting a basic understanding of algorithms, the mathematical language of robots. The class of about 10 to 15 students will learn how motors, sensors and range-finders work.

Semak said in an e-mail that the class will allow students to approach science and engineering on their own terms.

"We would like the students to develop their own scientific thought processes as they pursue class projects," he said. "This is such a wonderful thing to experience -- a student finding a passion develop for her/himself, a love."

In later units, the class will delve into "swarm robotics," where robots relay information to each other and behave as one unit.

The class will incorporate several small-scale robots as well as a larger machine with a camera and microphone that can be operated via the Internet or remote control. Kuhns and his team hope the class will be a confidence-booster for students who presumed robotics was beyond their grasp.

"We're trying to get rid of the stigma that to be (an engineer) you had to be doing it since birth," he said.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Curious & Controversial News

© MMIX, CBS Television Stations Inc. All Rights Reserved.