University of Michigan Regents have approved the creation of the Department of Robotics, a first among the nation’s top 10 engineering schools. The new department will define robotics as a discipline, teaching students the skills needed to help drive a rapidly expanding field.
As the University of Michigan Robotics Institute grew its graduate program from scratch, leaders like Eva Mungai stepped up to represent student needs and be an example for its outreach culture. The Institute recently recognized Mungai with an award for her work in bringing a student-first mentality to the new program, as well as the multiple volunteer efforts of which she’s been a part.
In this interview, Mungai shares her path into robotics, discusses the current state of robotics at Michigan, and talks about her hopes for the entire robotics field.
Victor Popa-Simil, an engineering undergraduate, recently shared this letter he sent to Professor Jessy Grizzle, Director of the Robotics Institute, earlier this year:
Dr. Grizzle,
My name is Victor Popa-Simil and I was in your ROB 101 class last semester. I’m a freshman from Los Alamos, New Mexico looking to go into biomedical engineering (robotic integration in the medical field). I’m not sure if you remember, but I walked into your office about 5 years ago and we had a conversation that shaped my educational career.
Robotics can inspire, and we can leverage that power to create more roboticists, keep the public properly informed on its future, and ensure robotics meets our vision of a field that improves society.
To do much of this outreach, we rely on our students. These students find time among classes and research to meet with children, middle and high schoolers, prospective graduate students and faculty, local and national community members, and media. The students present their work, run classes and demonstrations, and build up our own community–activities that bolster the culture and values of the University of Michigan Robotics Institute.