Choosing a major is a big decision. Here are answers to some of the most common questions prospective and current students ask about the Robotics degree at Michigan.
Third-year undergraduate Yulei Fu sits down with Professor Jessy Grizzle to talk about what it's actually like to major in robotics at the University of Michigan.+
Transcript
Yulei: Honestly, if I had to say something, over the three years I've been here, this major is the major for builders, for people that like to tinker, for people that recreationally like building things just for fun.
Yulei: Good enough for that? Am I talking clearly? Because I talk really fast.
Yulei: And I had a cup of coffee, so even faster.
Grizzle: It's okay, you're talking like young people.
Grizzle: I'm really happy to be here with one of our undergraduate majors, Yulei. Yulei, would you please introduce yourself and just tell me what makes you a little bit special?
Yulei: Yeah, thank you for having me. My name is Yulei, and I'm a third year robotics undergraduate student here at the University of Michigan, studying software with computer engineering focus. And currently, working in a robotics lab. I'm the sole undergraduate researcher on a joint project with Boeing, doing simulation infrastructure. And I have previously worked at Amazon Robotics as an embedded firmware software developer.
Yulei: So, again, this is Professor Grizzle. He's a very tenured controls professor, and some might consider him the father of bipedal robotics.
Grizzle: Well, you know, when I was in undergrad, robotics didn't exist as a major, right? I mean, people were still just starting to use robots to help enhance automotive manufacturing and things. Pick and place. Welding. Very controlled environments. It certainly wasn't a topic that was much taught even at the graduate level at that time. So my major, even though I am a robotics professor now, I do not have a robotics degree.
Yulei: Yeah. So the reality is a lot of students come to university to find jobs in industry right away. I just want to hear a little bit about what you think?
Grizzle: It's going better than we even anticipated. I'll be honest with you. See, the problem is the job announcements are not made for students who have a bachelor's degree in robotics. So you have to read between the lines a little bit. Our students who are getting better and better at reading between the lines of these job postings are ending up at Amazon, JPL, Tesla, NASA, Ford Motor Company, Stryker, Nuro, Motmot.
Grizzle: So many schools are saying that this should not be knowledge that's locked away at the graduate level. It should be accessible to students who don't want to spend five and a half years in school. They want to come here four years, have the tools to go out and get a job that is satisfying and pays well. And I think that's what we are delivering.
Yulei: Yeah, I've actually found that to be true in a lot of cases. They've asked for system integration engineers, which have to have a knowledge of how we do SLAM, how we work with lidar here, as undergraduates all the time, just in our classes. There's a lot of other companies that look for people that have a breadth of knowledge.
Yulei: So, Professor Grizzle, outside the department, I constantly hear things like, isn't the robotics major just code with a little bit of hardware or hardware with a little bit of code? In your opinion, what makes us different?
Grizzle: That's the point of view you have when you grow up in a silo. It is not the point of view you have when you want to attack robotics as a systems problem. Robotics is the full sandwich. It's not a single slice. It's not a single silo. So yes, while it's true, we can break it down into learning dynamics and control, human robot interaction, simultaneous localization and mapping, perception, AI, etc. If you want that robot to be better than a Frankenstein monster, something that can actually contribute to society, we need seamless integration from the beginning.
Yulei: I see, yeah, I think a good comparison is how in software, to have a good understanding of embedded systems or how hardware even works is fundamental to writing good scalable software.
Yulei: Given that robotics is so broad, how would you say that we focus on a particular subject? How do we go deep?
Grizzle: We've created concentrations. So these concentrations, it's effectively like having a minor within your major. Focus on hardware, you can focus on perception and mapping, you can focus on software and artificial intelligence. You can focus on dynamics and control. Or you can become a full stack roboticist and add a few extra credits and try to cover all of those, but I think most of you will choose one.
Yulei: So far, I've heard actually like varying takes on course rigor within the robotics department. So what is your take on this as somebody who designed our courses?
Grizzle: So I was shocked the other day when I learned that there's more than one definition of rigor. You see, as a faculty member who's mathematically oriented, to me, rigor is all the proofs and things that go behind developing algorithms that are fundamentally correct. But what I've understood is another perspective on rigor is only 5% of the students getting an A. And making it where a third of the students are going to fail on any given thing.
Grizzle: And we've designed the robotics curriculum to try to avoid that. We believe that if you're admitted to the University of Michigan, you're fundamentally very capable. Now, not all of us learn the same way. So we've tried to scaffold our subjects in such a way that you could absorb them. So, for example, even when we teach math, we're teaching coding at the same time.
Yulei: What's actually really nice about the robotics department is we not only learn the theory, but we execute it right after we learn it. You can learn about how A* works, but then right afterwards, we code A*, we code it from scratch. And then we put it onto our robots and we can actually see it happen live in front of us.
Grizzle: You've been in the department for almost three years now, and you must have friends that are in almost every other department in the College of Engineering and even other departments on campus. What makes us unique, in your opinion?
Yulei: We are a really close knit community. And I think that's one thing that actually sets robotics apart. There's more of a sense of community where we want to help each other out and less of a cutthroat environment where it feels like you're being suffocated amongst your peers.
Yulei: So I will say that's definitely something that really does set us apart. There's less gatekeeping.
Grizzle: That's a very important term.
Yulei: Yeah. And, to be put candidly, we're praying on each other's up. So stuff like that.
What makes a robotics degree different from a broad engineering degree?
Robotics is a systems discipline by definition: robots integrate sensing, computation, actuation, control, and interaction with the physical and social world. Students are intentionally exposed to multiple technical domains, and that breadth is a deliberate strength, not a compromise, and not superficial.
Michigan’s curriculum pairs systems breadth with guided depth through formal concentrations in areas such as Perception and Reasoning, Dynamics and Control, Hardware and Sensors, or Human-Robot Interaction. Concentrations are 12 or more credits drawn from the flexible technical electives and upper-level courses you are already required to take for the degree. They do not add courses or credits beyond your existing requirements. Instead, they give structure and recognition to the depth you build by choosing a coherent set of electives within the major.
Michigan Robotics also elevates topics that traditionally appeared only at the graduate level, including Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), robot kinematics and control, and systems-level sensing and hardware design, and scaffolds them for undergraduates at the 300 level with appropriate mathematical and computational foundations.
The systems perspective is a strength: graduates are trained to approach problems from multiple angles, communicate across specialties, and understand how design decisions propagate through an entire system. Employers increasingly value engineers who can move fluidly across interfaces.
How is robotics different from CS, ME, or EE?
Computer Science focuses primarily on computation and information, Mechanical Engineering on physical systems and energy, and Electrical Engineering on electronics, signals, and power. Robotics necessarily integrates all of these, but is defined by the problems it addresses rather than by the tools it employs.
Michigan’s robotics curriculum is framed around embodied intelligence: creating machines that intentionally exchange energy and information with their environments to achieve goals. This requires simultaneous reasoning about physical embodiment, computation, sensing, control, and interaction with humans. A robot cannot be understood or designed by separating software from hardware or intelligence from mechanics.
Robotics is thus not a specialization within CS, ME, or EE, but a distinct discipline with its own intellectual foundations, educational goals, and societal responsibilities.
How rigorous are robotics courses?
Michigan Robotics defines rigor through careful engagement with mathematical models, physical principles, algorithmic reasoning, and their limitations, coupled with the ability to apply those ideas to real, integrated systems. Courses demand sustained technical effort through programming, design, and system-level problem solving, often requiring students to reconcile theory with the constraints of real hardware and data.
Differences in grading practices and assessment styles across departments can create misleading impressions of relative difficulty. Rigor in robotics emphasizes mastery, synthesis, and transfer of knowledge rather than performance under narrowly defined exam conditions. Learn more about course rigor and workload expectations.
How do faculty connect students to industry?
Michigan Robotics faculty are recruited from the same national and international talent pools as peer institutions with strong robotics reputations, including Georgia Tech, CMU, MIT, Stanford, UPenn, and others. They publish in the same venues, compete for the same federal funding, and collaborate with the same industrial partners.
Strong research orientation and industry relevance are not opposites. In robotics, industry-facing impact increasingly depends on deep technical advances in perception, autonomy, control, hardware design, and human-robot interaction. Faculty bring current research questions, modern tools, and real robotic systems directly into the classroom, ensuring students learn skills that remain relevant as technologies evolve.
Industry engagement at Michigan often takes the form of foundational research partnerships, translational research, startup activity, and applied projects that influence real-world systems.
Where do Michigan Robotics graduates go?
Graduates enter industry roles across automotive, aerospace, autonomous systems, and technology. Many also continue to graduate school at top programs. See our Careers & Outcomes page for employer lists, job titles, graduate school destinations, and salary data.