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| At its core, the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics course is an exercise in problem-solving. “A lot of deep imagination goes into this. You can let your creativity run wild,” says Fernando Cassanova ’20 (left), who is consulting with Professor of Science and Technology Brian Blais, Ph.D., on building a robot champion for the course. |
Taught by Professor of Science and Technology Brian Blais, Ph.D., the course tasks students with building “thinking machine” mobile robots that play to win and can autonomously defeat human opponents.
Along the way, students develop key skills in design, programming, problem-solving, and engineering – and acquire hands-on experience that will set them apart in the real world. “We’re able to take algorithms and machine-learning problems and actually apply them,” says Data Science major Andrew Allen ’21. “We’re able to see how what we’re programming can have a direct impact on the outside world.”...
“This was definitely a class that I knew I wanted to take as soon as I saw it was offered,” says John Belval ’20, an Actuarial Mathematics and Biology double major. “The concepts we’re studying, like machine learning, just seemed so far beyond me, almost like they were magic. I really wanted to see what I was capable of." Now, he says, "I’m much more comfortable with the concepts because I can see how they’re applied. It’s not as unknowable anymore.”...
Robots are for everyone
Though having some programming experience can be helpful for the course, it’s not required, and the skills the students acquire are valuable for a variety of professions – not just building robots.
“The things that the students learn in this class transfer to other fields pretty easily,” Blais says. “One of my students, who was an actuarial major, got a job with an actuarial firm because of this class. It stood out on their transcript and showed that they knew how to program and how to solve problems.”
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Source: Bryant University
