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The Center for
Robotics and Biosystems
focuses on research, education,
and public engagement
in the areas of
robotics, human machine
systems, neuromechanics,
and bio-inspired systems.
My particular interest is in
the sensing behavior of animals
and how we might
build robots that
can adopt some of these sensing
strategies that animals have.
I'm primarily interested
in physical human-robot
interaction, where the
human and the robot
are physically interacting
with each other and physically
affecting each other.
One of the most important
goals of the center
is to learn from each
other, to bring people
with different expertise
together in the same space
so that they can share ideas
and achieve synergies that
wouldn't be possible otherwise.
Northwestern is a truly
interdisciplinary environment.
We have a large, open,
collaborative space
where students can interact.
And I think the
close integration
with the Master of Science
in Robotics Program
is really good.
There's just a lot more
opportunity for the space
to act as an incubator, not just
an incubator for academic ideas
but also an incubator for
entrepreneurial ideas,
an incubator for what we
should be doing in the future,
even if it's not what
we're doing right now.
Our work on human robot
systems benefits greatly
from our close collaboration
with the Shirley Ryan
AbilityLab.
What that means for
me as an engineer is
that I have unparalleled
access to clinical expertise,
because we're actually
situated in the hospital
and we interact with
these patients every day.
They're around us all the time.
We can also see where our
patients are struggling
and where our technology
would hopefully help one day.
And we want that to
get to them quicker.
I personally feel
very fortunate to work
with such a talented,
diverse group of faculty
and students who are so
passionate about their research
and education.
I think that the center
and the set of interactions
that the center
will bring with it
should mean that,
five years from now,
we can look back and see lots
of the big ideas being produced
at Northwestern in
robotics really started
as a function of these
small interactions.
That type of work is going
to be more likely than it
has been in the past.
Our future with
robots is inevitable.
And so it's really about
planning for that future,
making sure that the benefits
of robotics are shared,
and thinking about how we
should co-evolve together
for the benefit of mankind.
