Overview
The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon Is a Worldwide Leader in Education and Innovation in Robotics Technologies
Nearly thirty years ago, Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute opened its doors with the dream of ushering in a new age of thinking in robotics technologies. Even when robotics technologies were relatively primitive, their potential role in boosting the productivity and competitiveness of the United States in the evolving global marketplace was foreseen.
The institute was established in 1979 to conduct basic and applied research in robotics technologies relevant to industrial and societal tasks, and the world's first robotics Ph.D. program was founded at the institute in 1988. During the ensuing decades, as it experienced many research successes in intelligent manufacturing, autonomous vehicles, space-related robots, medical robotics, nano-machines, computer vision and graphics, and anthropomorphic robots, the Robotics Institute became an international leader in robotics education and a worldwide hub of robotics research. Seeking to combine the practical and the theoretical, the Robotics Institute has diversified its efforts and approaches to robotics science while retaining its original goal of realizing the potential of the robotics field.
Leading Robotics Research Is Conducted at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute
Robotics research at the institute encompasses a diverse array of topics. While much of the institute's work focuses on core robotics technologies, such as manipulation, locomotion, and control, it also focus on related research areas that include machine learning, computer vision, and graphics. The institute's faculty members explore more than ninety areas of robotics research that include, but certainly are not limited to, artificial intelligence, computer vision, field robotics, human-computer interaction, mechatronics, medical applications, multi-agent systems, quality-of-life technology, and space robotics.
The Institute's robotics research is conducted at three different, progressively more general levels: projects, labs and groups, and centers and consortia. A project is a single body of work on a specific topic or a set of related topics, performed by one or more researchers.
Labs and groups involve multiple people working together on a set of projects, often with a related theme. Typically, labs are associated with a physical location, while groups may not have a shared workspace. Current groups and labs at the institute include the Advanced Mechatronics Lab, the Auton Lab, Biomedical Image Analysis, Biorobotics, Component Analysis Lab, Computational Sensor Lab, Computational Symmetry, Computer Graphics Lab, and CREATE, which is interested in Community Robotics, Education, and Technology Empowerment.
Centers and consortia involve multiple labs, groups, and individual researchers who are working on a common general theme, such as medical robotics research. A center generally consists of researchers primarily from within the Robotics Institute, while a consortium is a collaboration with researchers at other institutions.
Interdisciplinary Master's and Ph.D. Robotics Programs at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute are Unrivaled
Three master's-level and three Ph.D.-level robotics programs are offered by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). The programs are inherently interdisciplinary, bringing together areas of robotics research that would otherwise be spread across different departments or separate universities. Research for the master's and Ph.D. programs is conducted in the laboratories of the Robotics Institute under the supervision of faculty advisers and in collaboration with student colleagues.
In the Master of Science (M.S.) program, students learn the fundamentals of robotics theory and practice. An M.S./Robotic Technology Program teaches future tech entrepreneurs the foundations of robotics, software engineering, and management. Master's students can typically complete the program in twelve months of full-time, self-funded study or, if financial assistance is available, two years of study while working as a research assistant. Throughout the programs, students split their time between research and course work. A fifth-year master's program is also available.
The Robotics Institute strives to provide graduates of the robotics Ph.D. programs with the knowledge, experience, and skills they will need in order to lead in the research and development of future generations of integrated robotics technologies and systems. Because the faculty members and advisers in the robotics Ph.D. programs and are committed to preparing students to be world-class researchers who create knowledge and artifacts that can impact our society, graduates have taken on roles ranging from serving as faculty members in top universities to designing and controlling Mars rovers. Learning to work independently and collaboratively, doctoral students typically complete their Ph.D. programs in five to six years, with the first two years split between research and course work and the final years focused entirely on research. Students are involved in every aspect of research¿from initial problem formulation to the final publication of results. They are awarded a yearly graduate fellowship, which includes tuition, activity fees, and a stipend, as long as they maintain good standing in the program. Program requirements include course work, a research qualifier, and submission of a thesis that describes original, independent research.
In addition to the Ph.D. program, students can pursue an interdisciplinary program that combines an M.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a Ph.D. in robotics from CMU. For students with an interest in the neural basis of cognition, an interdisciplinary robotics program is offered in collaboration with the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition and several other affiliated doctoral programs at CMU and the University of Pittsburgh.
