The University of Michigan undergraduate robotics program will open its doors this fall, becoming the first dedicated robotics department among the top 10 engineering schools in the United States. First announced by the College of Engineering in Fall 2021, the program is now open for enrollment for the upcoming fall semester after receiving approval from the Michigan Association of State Universities on June 2. The Michigan Daily sat down with students, professors and the incoming department chair to discuss the unique opportunities the program has to offer.

How did we get here? A brief history of Michigan Robotics

A University press release cited a figure from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics stating that demand for robotics-educated professionals has continued to increase over the past few years, rising by 13% in 2018. Much like the industry at large, robotics at the University has emerged and grown rapidly within a relatively short period of time.

Engineering professor Dawn Tilbury, who will become the robotics department’s first chair on July 1, spoke with The Daily about the first steps taken toward establishing a robotics program at the University just over a decade ago in 2011.

“I was asked to chair a committee to think about the future of robotics at the University of Michigan,” Tilbury said. “That committee met and just proposed to the (University) in 2012 that we should have a graduate program in robotics, independent of any department; an institute that would bring the faculty together around research, and some shared space for the graduate students who are working in all these different departments around robotics to work together.”

The University introduced a Master’s and Ph.D. program in robotics through the Rackham Graduate School in 2014, which allowed students to obtain graduate degrees in the field for the first time. The U-M Robotics Institute was created in 2017 as a dedicated space for faculty who were interested in robotics.

In the spring of 2021, the University opened the Ford Motor Company Robotics Building, a 134,000-square-foot complex on North Campus dedicated to robotics research, assembly and education. The building currently houses the U-M Robotics Institute and will allow undergraduate students in the new degree program to design, build and test robots of all kinds.

After offering a handful of robotics courses to students at the University for a few years, the College of Engineering announced its undergraduate robotics program. According to a draft program guide for the 2022-2023 school year, incoming robotics students will be required to take a linear algebra course, 16 credits of core and intermediate robotics courses, a number of disciplinary breadth and depth courses, and a capstone course to complete the major.

Tilbury said the University has the resources to utilize a wide range of tools and technologies for its students in the program, allowing them to practice varying disciplines and techniques.

“We’re big enough at Michigan to do what we call ‘full-spectrum robotics,’ meaning we do robots that fly, robots that walk, robots that drive, robots that swim,” Tilbury said. “I think we’re also setting a stage for inclusive robots, bringing in people from many different disciplines … It’s not just computer science or just mechanical engineering. It’s really the full spectrum of engineering disciplines that can contribute to robotics.”