A robot scanned from right to left to identify the nearest object, swimmers in the ocean who needs help by imagination, then it turned to the object and moved towards it, after the object was recued, the robot attended to another object. When the recue job was completed, the robot sang a song in celebration!
The students were excited to see the demonstration of their robot
This task was completed by the robots which were designed and installed by the students of Prof. Michael Hvidsten's major selective course titled "Introduction to Robotics". In this course, the students, all of which year-three and year-two students majoring in Computer Science at UIC, get to really build robots that carries out their commands.
The parts of the robots were originally bought from the U.S., but our students get to construct them by their own two hands, including installing the circuit diagrams, PING sensors, decorative parts, etc.
A student making his robot with tools provided by DST
The students loved the course. Michael Yin, a year-three student said: "the most interesting thing about this course is that, compared to physics courses in high school, which was completely theoretical study, you can see the realization of what you have coded into the robot. Besides, when installing the robot, you can practice the theories such as series circuits and parallel circuits which you learned from high school as well."
Charlie Qiu, a year-two student who luckily enrolled to this course as a sophomore suggested that this course should be open to all year-two students, for it could greatly increase students' interests in Computer Science. The students hoped the college could purchase more robots and maintained that this course should be carried on in the future, for Prof. Hvidsten is visiting UIC for only a year.
Prof. Hvidsten (right) and his TA(middle) and student (left)
Prof. Hvidsten comes from Gustavus Adolphus College, Minnesota, a member of the Minnesota Private College Council. He learned about UIC through UIC Executive Vice President Prof. Kwok Siu-Tong and Programme Coordinator of Computer Science Dr. Haipeng Guo's visits to MPCC. Amiable and friendly, his course is warmly welcomed by the students. One student said: "I would stay for a fifth years at UIC for this course."
There is still another half a semester for the students to enjoy the course. They are planning to refine the robots and enable them to finish more complex missions.
Reporter: Richard Xu
Media & Public Relations Office
