Integrating robotics research with undergraduate education

Swarthmore College takes a two-pronged approach to undergraduate education by integrating educational goals with robotics research. First, it offers courses in artificial intelligence, computer vision and robotics. Both AI and computer vision serve as prerequisites for the robotics course. Second, it involves students in ongoing research projects as part of their undergraduate experience. To keep up with the wide-ranging, fast-moving robotics field, education must be adaptive and multidisciplinary. The authors describe two undergraduate group projects they conducted, one from 1998 at the University of North Dakota advised by Maxwell, and one from 1999 at Swarthmore advised by both authors. The impetus for these projects was the American Association for Artificial Intelligence's (AAAI's) annual robot competition. These experiences led to the development of a new robotics course at Swarthmore, which they co-taught in the spring of 2000.