Teaching and Outreach

Our lab takes part in many student activities: we teach courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, we advise the Harvard-MIT RoboCup Team, and we enjoy taking part in outreach for middle and high-school students throughout Cambridge.

STEM Outreach
Robot Soccer Competition and RFC Cambridge Club

Courses:

Wyss Article on Outreach

Outreach

Favorite quote from a middle schooler: "Thank you for showing us the cricket robot. I am going to build my own and maybe I could show you!"

Our lab uses inspiration from nature to design computing and robotic systems. We enjoy presenting our work to K-12 students and getting them excited about science and engineering. From robotic bees that easily fit on your fingertip to groups of robots that work together like ants or termites, we have a fascinating array of robots for you to see.

We have several non-technical presentations and robot demonstrations that can travel to a school or event, and we can also host short lab tours in our lab. Although we are a small lab, we try to do a few outreach events every semester and we are especially interested in reaching minorities that are underrepresented in engineering. If you are interested in having students visit the lab, or us bringing a workshop to you, contact Radhika by email.

Events we take part in:

Cambridge Science Festival; MIT Museum of Science and Harvard Museum of Natural History; Harvard Museum of Natural History Inspect Planet Day; MIT Women and Technology Program (Summer Program for High-School Girls); LeadAmerica Robotics Engineering Program; Citizen's School Apprenticeship Program; Grace Hopper Conference on Computing for Women; Harvard REU (Research Experience for Undergrads) and RET (Research Experience for Teachers) Programs.

Recent Events

Cambridge Science Festival, April 2012
Robot Block Party: Boston Museum of Science, April 2012
MIT Museum: Biomimetic Robots Exhibition, May 2012

Robot Soccer Competition and RFC Cambridge

To advance research in artificial intelligence and robotics, the International Robocup Competition was started in 1994. The grand challenge is to create an Autonomous Robot Team that can defeat the WorldCup human team in 2050. To tackle this multi-faceted problem, there are several leagues that focus on different aspects of the problem. The small-size league focuses on robust robot design (teams design and build their own robots) and multi-robot cooperation in highly dynamic and adversarial environments. What makes RoboCup most exciting is that once the game starts, the robots must make decisions themselves - the humans who programmed the teams do not control them.

RFC Cambridge is a joint Harvard-MIT team composed primarily of undergraduates, from many disciplines (mechanical, electrical, and computer science), who all share in their joy of designing and programming robots. Since 2006, the RFC group has participated every year in the Small-Size League with robots and AI software that has been designed by its members. Our group members have been featured in lots of places, e.g. Cartoon Network and most recently the front page of the Boston Globe.

RFC and HCES (Harvard College Engineering Society) are continuing their team effort in the small-size league -- our most recent 2010 team managed to tie Gatech and beat UBC. Send us email if you are interested and come see our soccer field in the third floor lounge of the Maxwell-Dworkin building!

Front Page Article, Boston Globe (March 2010): The article discusses many interesting challenges in autonomous robotics, with quotes from RFC members Svilen Kanev and Alexei Colin. The website also has some nice movies of the robots shooting goals.
Cartoon Network Movie Segment (from 2006) on Robocup, featuring many members from the very first RFC Cambridge competition team.