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A Multidisciplinary Educational Robotics Initiative that would develop a robotics certificate program and a Structures and Computational Mechanics Laboratory to expand undergraduate research opportunities at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology have been awarded Faculty Success Grants from the Office of Academic Affairs, according to Art Western, vice president of academic affairs and dean of the faculty.
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Interesting Youths In Robotics: David Fisher, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, utilizes a robotics project to get middle school and high school students from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology's Explore Engineering program interested in engineering and science. |
The Faculty Success Grant program was developed from an original $1 million grant presented by the Lilly Endowment Inc. to encourage collaborative academic initiatives by new, non-tenured faculty members. Two grants are awarded annually, and the grants can cover up to $100,000 in program costs.
The Multidisciplinary Educational Robotics Initiative (MERI) was proposed by Carlotta Berry, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering; Matt Boutell, assistant professor of computer science and software engineering; Steve Chenoweth, associate professor of computer science and software engineering; and David Fisher, assistant professor of mechanical engineering.
The multidisciplinary nature of robotics presents an excellent opportunity to attract a diverse body of student to Rose-Hulman while fostering multidisciplinary teamwork and illustrating connections between engineering and computing. The MERI will develop a robotics certificate program at Rose-Hulman that includes a new freshman programming course using robotics, for a minimum of 100 students from multiple disciplines.
Other aspects of the program will include a minimum of five multidisciplinary senior design projects with a robotics focus over three years, and a minimum of 10 students on track to graduate with a robotics certificate by the end of the third year.
The MERI program will give the Office of Admissions another tool to recruit interested high school students to Rose-Hulman; bring together students from multiple departments to work on real-world engineering problems; centralize the robotics presence on campus by mobilizing faculty from multiple departments; and enable students to pursue research assistantships or employment in robotics.
The first phase of the grant will have the four-member faculty team developing the course and certificate program. The group will spend the second phase seeking federal grants to expand the certificate programming and solicit industry partners to sponsor the multidisciplinary senior design projects.
Meanwhile, the Structures and Computational Mechanics (SCM) Laboratory concept, submitted by civil engineering professor John Aidoo and mechanical engineering professor Richard Onyancha, will work collaboratively with the Structural Engineering and Mechanics (SEM) Group at the University of Pittsburgh. This will be a teaching and research laboratory that will focus on the use of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials in infrastructure and harnessing the power of available general purpose computational tools to model and predict the behavior of bonded FRP in infrastructure.
Working alongside the University of Pittsburgh will place the laboratory on a sound footing to leverage additional opportunities and resources, and provide invaluable experience presently not available to Rose-Hulman students and collaborating faculty members. |
