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A New Club Goes High Tech

Robotics innovates the ways students can get involved on campus

Posted in: CSAM Students, Graduate, Opportunities, School of Computing, Undergraduate

students and Dr. Wang in the CRoSS lab
Members of the new Robotics Club work with technology in the Collaborative Robotics and Smart Systems Laboratory, from left, Laury Rodríguez, Jesse Parron, Omar Obidat, and Jean-Jacques N’dri with their advisor, Weitian Wang.

Interest on campus for a student club has grown since Obidat and other founding members – including other members of the executive board, Laury Rodríguez, Jesse Parron, and Jean-Jacques N’dri – presented a showcase set up as an interactive experience. There were multiple robots and smart systems to choose from including a collaborative robot platform SmaRC, an immersive virtual reality system, rover, smart armband and flat-screen TV rigged with four sensors turning it into a touch-screen display.

In February, the club is conducting a series of workshops on robotics innovation, which received grant support from the National Science Foundation as well as the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund. A goal of these academic events is to attract more women and underrepresented minorities to the STEM field, Wang says. With students across all academic disciplines working in groups, it will be interesting to see what the future holds.

The Robotics Club is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CNS-2104742 and Grant No. CNS-2117308.

Read more on the University News site