Students’ robotics work catches industry’s eye

February 02, 2010

Industry is keeping an eye on robotics research and development by Arizona State University engineering students.<separator></separator>Marcos Garcia-Acosta, an Intel Corp. technology marketing manager, recently visited a lab where students are completing senior-year computer science and engineering design projects in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, a part of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.<separator></separator>This semester they’re developing easy-to-use hardware and software to enable students in local high schools to program robots for use in an autonomous robotics competition.<separator></separator>Garcia-Acosta said work by the ASU engineering students’ Intel Robotics Team could potentially have more far-reaching impacts.<separator></separator>Robotics is an area expected to grow significantly, he said, “and we are always looking for innovation. We find a lot of creativity coming out of university students. That’s why Intel is interested in encouraging them.”<separator></separator>For the past four years, Garcia-Acosta has been an industry mentor for the student robotics team. Fellow Intel marketing manager John Oliver also is a mentor.<separator></separator>“They give our students exposure to real-world technological challenges and potential job opportunities,” said Yinong Chen, an engineering faculty member who directs the team.<separator></separator>Intel provided funding in 2007 and 2008 to establish the team, and contributes components for students’ projects each semester. More than 75 students have participated.<separator></separator>“There is a lot of demand for advances in robotics, to make them commercially viable and more versatile,” Garcia-Acosta said. With more robotic devices in use, demand would increase for one of Intel’s primary products, high-performance computer processors. <separator></separator>Encouraging the students’ research, he said, gives Intel an opportunity to nurture the future experts whose discoveries might improve the company’s products or expand the industry’s horizons.<separator></separator>Students “are good at putting ideas to the test,” Garcia-Acosta said, and his colleagues at Intel “see enough promising things happening” to convince them to continue providing students the tools they need to keep progressing.<separator></separator>See <a href="http://vimeo.com/9740048">video</a> about the ASU Intel Robotics Team's project.<separator></separator>

Engineering Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering