REU Site: Applied Computational Robotics

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This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site will support a diverse group of 10 undergraduate students in a 10-week mentored research experience in computational robotics, including components emphasizing professional and academic skills development and community building. The primary population of target students will be sophomores and juniors from undergraduate-serving institutions in the southeast. The project will encourage these students toward graduate study and research-oriented industry positions in robotics and related areas of computing, and provide essential preparation for these career paths. It will be an excellent opportunity for undergraduates to participate in research projects each year. The emphasis on applications of computing in robotics is supportive of the growing social need for such expertise. The selection process for these students will promote the inclusion of underrepresented groups through targeted publicity and outreach efforts. Research conducted by the students will lead to more effective approaches to robot perception, control, and learning. The research spans projects rooted in areas are often overlooked by the contemporary robotics community, but crucially important for the deployment of reliable, trustworthy robotic systems. Participants will engage in scientifically-relevant research projects organized around the observation that "Robots Change Everything." That is, when computers are utilized to enable autonomy in robotic systems, the complexity and unpredictability of the physical world have profound implications on nearly every aspect of that computing system, from the application-specific algorithms and data structures, all the way down to the lower-level considerations of security and network connectivity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.