AUP's New Robotics Club

The night was filled with discussions of Raspberry Pi, Java scopes, Python scripts, and Robbie Roybot. AUP’s Robotics club’s first meeting touched on a vast amount of topics Thursday night in Combes. Leading the discussion amongst a group of nine was Jed Carty, a Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology graduate working on his doctoral thesis on cognitive radio, creator of Robbie Roybot, and co-founder of OokTech.

The Robotics club was started by Miguel Arias (President and senior majoring in math and computer science) and Sacha Giuliano (Vice President and senior majoring in computer science) with the help of professors Claudia Roda and Georgi Stojanov. Thursday's discussion focused on discussing the future of the club. Miguel Arias says he had the idea of starting the club to give students a more tangible medium when it comes to programming. Arias says, “Programming isn’t always nearly as fast, dangerous, or thrilling as I’m sure everyone imagines it to be. I wanted to apply the things we learned to a more tangible medium that would be able to capture the attention of more people through this more hands-on approach.” The club is seeking students from different departments of AUP. Interaction design, the action of creating user experiences that enhance the way a user feels, works, or communicates requires a multidisciplinary team. Interaction design teams often include programmers, engineers, program managers, marketers, artists, psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists. A common misconception is that the computer whiz encompasses every aspect of technological product design, but it takes a diverse group of people to design for a great user experience.

The club consists of 12 people including Math, Computer Science, Economics, Business, Finance, Communications, Environmental Science, and Psychology students. There is no required experience and the group teaches the basics to all novices. 

Carty advised the group to start with a small simple project, like a remote control car that can avoid obstacles or identify faces.  Carty also emphasized that failure of codes or prototypes were a normal step in the process of robotics saying that “the only way you’re going to get better is by making things that break… you learn from fixing things."

Interactive video of Robbie Roybot walking through Invalides. Source: Youtube

The group is already working on their first project. It meets Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 5 pm. To anyone wondering what to expect from Robotics Club, Arias says, “That’s the beauty of it, we don’t know what to expect. If you can imagine it, you can try to make it…. Anything you can dream can be augmented or implemented with technology.”

Interested in joining Robotics Club?

Email robotics@aup.edu. No experience needed.