Soccer-playing robots and a Colbert Report shoutout were just two of the ways the School of Engineering and Applied Science brought new meaning to "seize the day."
Monday night, the Engineering Dean’s Advisory Board arranged “SEAS the Day,” three twenty-minute talks by Penn professors in Levine Hall. The event lured around 25 Penn students, many from the Engineering School.
Leading the discussion was Engineering professor Daniel Lee, who focused on machine learning. With Disney character Wall-E portrayed on screen, Lee made sure to mention that creating emotions in machines is “something we’re far away from.”
Although unable to reach emotions in technology, Lee and his engineering team were able to accomplish great things on the ground like the UPennalizers — soccer-playing robots — and a fourth-place finish in the 2007 Urban Challenge, where they constructed a robot car to pass a driving test.
Following Lee was Engineering professor Vijay Kumar, whose robots — unlike Lee’s — were to be made useful in the air. Kumar explained the importance of using unmanned aerial vehicles because they are incredibly agile and because aerodynamics are reasonably well-understood in the field.
He added that the robots are also able to “adapt to forces of their field.” Kumar’s team’s robot became so popular that it was mentioned in Stephen Colbert’s The Colbert Robert who feared that such a robot could become “robot drones” and had the potential to “beat us in Jenga.”
Professor Brian Litt ended the discussion with a talk on translational neuroengineering. Litt mentioned that the goal when dealing with epilepsy and seizures is to “try to build devices that interface with the brain.” He added that “the idea is taking the strength of the Penn community” and “looking at organic devices versus inorganic devices.”
Engineering sophomore Saad Anwar, a previous student of Lee, found “the robots part most interesting” and was surprised that more people didn’t show up. “This wasn’t that grand,” he said, hoping to see similar events put on more frequently.
Sophomore Engineering students and members of EDAB Alec Miller and Nick McGill ran the event and felt it was a success. McGill said the fact that the event was rescheduled from a date earlier this semester may have hurt Monday’s turnout. He added that the group has plans of making the event occur once a semester.
“If we get one more kid interested in research, then I know Nick and I will consider it a major success,” Miller said.
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