Product of the Year Award info.
FGCU engineering program to get robots
By Riddhi Trivedi-St. Clair (Contact)
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Computer science students at Florida Gulf Coast University have been developing some interesting software programs. But testing them would require a computer science laboratory — much like a physics or chemistry lab — where they can experiment, assemble their own computers, install their own software and collect data from the execution of the software.
Starting with the spring semester, they’ll have access to the technology they need to put their software to the test. A local robotics company is donating three robots and robotic controllers to the school and has also promised technical and technological support for them.
The donation is intended for the use of FGCU’s School of Engineering, said Walt Wiesel, chairman and CEO of Innova Holdings, parent company of Robotic Workplace Technologies. But until the school gets its new building in 2008, the technology will serve the students in the computer science department well, giving them a chance at practical, hands-on training they have never had.
The first robot will be put to use in the spring semester in a software engineering project, Professor Janusz Zalewski said. If that goes well, the plan is to involve all the robots in the fall semester.
Universities the size of FGCU typically aren’t able to provide students with such equipment. The robots aren’t easy to come by — and in fact aren’t available at the retail level. They’re also expensive. Each is valued at $40,000 to $50,000, Weisel said. Each controller is worth about $15,000.
Susan Blanchard, founding director of the engineering school, said the cost alone would have prohibited the school from buying them.
“We have to use our money for lab equipment to deliver the courses we have to deliver to get accreditation,” Blanchard said.
The robots open up a new area of research for students as well as faculty. When the engineering building opens in three years, the two schools will share the use of the robots. By then, Zalewski hopes the computer students will have some new software and applications to share with engineering students.
The robots, or robotic arms, are basically just that — arms that sit on top of a table on about 2 square feet of space. They have mobility and reach and can be programmed to perform a variety of tasks, from lifting papers and books, to feeding a disabled person, to whatever else the students can think of making them do.
“Each one of the arms is capable of doing just about whatever (the students’) imagination allows them to,” said Wiesel, who is also on the advisory board of the new engineering school.
The arms can be controlled through a regular keyboard or even run on commands from a voice-activated keyboard. The arm won the product of the year award for Michigan and later for the nation in different competitions, Wiesel said, and he hopes it will help shape the future of the engineering and software program at FGCU.
“This is a good time to start to shape the program we want it to be,” he said. “I want to be on the ground floor of what is going to be a great engineering school.”
Zalewski’s students have previously worked on various projects including developing software to control a telescope that was able to observe satellites flying over Southwest Florida.
Their latest project, he said, was in collaboration with Bonita Springs-based GuestClick to design a program for PDAs and cell phones to let customers remotely access services such as hotel reservations and flight information.
“With the new robots the students will get hands-on experience,” Zalewski said. “They can write the software to have the robots perform intelligent tasks, design new applications for them. Even take them apart and assemble them.”
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