Robotics Education at Georgia Tech

 

A Leader in Interdisciplinary Approaches

Georgia Tech offers the first interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in robotics to students enrolled in a participating school within either the College of Computing or the College of Engineering. A fully integrated, multidisciplinary experience, the program educates a new generation of robotics researchers as well as innovative leaders prepared to make an impact upon entering the workforce. 

IRIM serves as the flagship for Tech’s robotics efforts and, therefore, has an integral relationship with many faculty members serving as research advisors to students pursuing the robotics degree. The program includes both coursework and research, with teaching needs served by faculty members in various units across campus. 

Academic excellence is the cornerstone of Georgia Tech's value to our students, faculty, and the larger community.

We take a multidisciplinary, research-oriented, hands-on approach to education, where knowledge isn’t the end but rather the means through which problems are solved, discoveries are made and opportunities are created. Tech's academic programs are consistently recognized among the best and prepare students for success in a world where technology touches every aspect of our daily lives.

Find the Program Page Here

Other Initiatives: IRIM Visiting Faculty Fellow

Computer Vision: Looking Back to Look Forward | IRIM Robotics Mini-Course Lecture Videos
Svetlana Lazebnik - Associate Professor; Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

 

These days, established computer vision professors are given to complaining, with varying degrees of seriousness, that current Ph.D. students do not know any work in the field that pre-dates the “deep learning revolution” of 2012. However, while wholesale amnesia is unquestionably dangerous for the field, from a pragmatic point of view, even the “old guard” concedes that it is no longer necessary to teach historic work that was truly an intellectual dead end. This short course is an attempt to grapple with the question of what “classical” computer vision techniques should be considered a “must know” for researchers entering the field today, and how past trends and approaches should inform the field as it looks poised to enter a challenging phase—continuing its spurt of rapid growth even while the initial momentum from the “deep learning revolution” begins to fade and negative societal impacts of some maturing technologies come into view.

 

Introduction and Historical Overview

Connections to Cognitive Science and Psychophysics

History of Ideas in Recognition: Part I

History of Ideas in Recognition: Part II

Future Trends

Ethical and Societal Impacts of Computer Vision Technologies

 

Other Initiatives: Healthcare Robotics

In addition to our Ph.D. program in robotics, IRIM provides leadership in Tech's traineeship program in healthcare robotics.

Accessibility, Rehabilitation, and Movement Science: An Interdisciplinary Traineeship Program in Human-Centered Robotics

Georgia Tech’s multidisciplinary Ph.D. program in Robotics currently accepts students from various engineering backgrounds. Although it does not have a direct focus on health, it provides sufficient foundational knowledge in the core elements of robotics, which includes control, mechanics, perception, autonomy/artificial intelligence, and human interaction.

Faculty Highlight

Ronald Arkin

Ronald C. Arkin - Robots & Ethical Use

Regents' Professor and Roboticist  Ron Arkin  received the B.S. Degree from the University of Michigan, the M.S. Degree from Stevens Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1987. He then assumed the position of Assistant Professor in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he now holds the rank of Regents' Professor and is the Director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory. He also serves as the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech since October 2008. During 1997-98, Professor Arkin served as STINT visiting Professor at the Centre for Autonomous Systems at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. From June-September 2005, Prof. Arkin held a Sabbatical Chair at the Sony Intelligence Dynamics Laboratory in Tokyo, Japan and then served as a member of the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Group at LAAS/CNRS in Toulouse, France from October 2005-August 2006.

 
 
Research Areas: Intelligent robotics, robot ethics, bioinspired robotics
 

In addition to his teaching and research, Professor Arkin has worked extensively on the military applications of robots. In his work, he asks difficult questions about how scientists can reduce human inhumanity to others. He has published several books on the subject, and has been featured as an expert by the New York Times, as well as other national media, for his knowledge on the ethical use of robotics in the modern battle-space.