Education
Our research efforts are being complemented by continuously-growing efforts to integrate research and education. Efforts in this vein extend over multiple activities including but not limited to current and new course development and teaching, hands-on robotics lab development and maintenance, establishment of state-of-the-art robotics instruction facilities, and more.
Information below aims to offer a high-level illustration of our integrated research and education efforts. For more detailed information, or if you are interested in exploring if the lab can participate in some outreach activity, please contact us!
Teaching
Primary Instructor - K. Karydis
EE175A: Senior Design Project
Fall '17, '19, '20
EE175B: Senior Design Project
Winter '18, '20, '21
EE/ME144, EE283A (as of Fall'21): Foundations of Robotics (was: 'Introduction to Robotics')
Spring '18; Fall '18, '19, '20, '21, '22, '23
EE106: Programming Practical Robotics
Spring '23, '24
EE245/ME220: Advanced Robotics
Spring '19
EE260: Advanced Robotics: Dynamics, Control, and Planning for Aerial Robots
Spring '22
Teaching Assistants - ARCS Graduate Students
Xinyue Kan, PhD (Graduated Spring 2021)
EE230: Mathematical Methods For Electrical Engineers; Fall '17
EE105: Modeling and Simulation of Dynamic Systems; Winter '18
EE/ME144: Introduction to Robotics; Spring '18
Zhouyu Lu, PhD (Graduated Summer 2022)
EE/ME144: Introduction to Robotics; Fall '18
Merrick Campbell, MS (Graduated Spring 2022)
EE175A & EE175B: Senior Design Project; Fall '21 & Winter '22
Zhichao Liu, PhD (Graduated Spring 2023)
EE230: Mathematical Methods For Electrical Engineers; Fall '19
EE132: Automatic Control; Spring '20
EE260: Advanced Robotics: Dynamics, Control, and Planning for Aerial Robots; Spring '22
Lu Shi, PhD (Graduated Spring 2023)
EE175A & EE175B: Senior Design Project; Fall '19 & Winter '20 and Fall '20 & Winter '21
EE/ME144, EE283A: Foundations of Robotics; Fall '21
Amel Dechemi, PhD (Graduated Summer 2023)
EE/ME144, EE283A: Foundations of Robotics; Fall '21 & Fall'22
Hanzhe Teng
EE/ME144: Introduction to Robotics
Fall '19 (Received Distinguished Teaching Award 2019-2020 - Honorable Mention) & Fall '20
Keran Ye
EE132: Automatic Control; Spring '20
Cody Simons
EE175A & EE175B: Senior Design Project; Fall '22 & Winter '23 and Fall '23 & Winter '24
Dimitris Chatziparaschis
EE/ME144, EE283A: Foundations of Robotics; Fall '22 & Fall'23
EE106: Programming Practical Robotics; Spring'23
Xiao'ao Song
EE/ME144, EE283A: Foundations of Robotics; Fall'23
EE106: Programming Practical Robotics; Spring'24
Pamodya Peiris
EE175A & EE175B: Senior Design Project; Fall '23 & Winter '24
Undergraduate Student Research Opportunities
The lab routinely offers opportunities for undergraduate students to become involved in research and learn fundamental robotics principles (e.g., design, fabrication, modeling, planning, etc.). Participation in research can often gain students co-authorship on papers, along with research-based awards offered by UCR (e.g., the research mini-grant). If interested in joining our group, please see more details under Joining tab.
Transforming UCR's Robotics Education
K. Karydis is heavily involved in several efforts to transform UCR's robotics education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Among these efforts, K. Karydis has raised internal seed funds to 1) acquire more and new robots and sensors for robotics instruction (supported by ECE), and 2) materialize a state-of-the-art Robotics Instructional Lab (supported by BCOE Dean's Office, ECE, and ME).
Robots and Sensors used in Robotics Instruction
12 Kobuki wheeled robots ('turtlebot'), each equipped with a 23000mAh powerbank, Intel NuC mini-PC (i7, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD), RPLIDAR-A2 Laser Range Scanner, and Orbbec Astra Pro Stereo Camera.
20 Crazyflie2.0 aerial robots, with an assortment of flow decks, LED decks, (motion capture) marker decks, big quad decks, spare props, motors and frames, and several batteries and chargers.
12 Reactor X robot arms, with all associated electronics, 50000mAh powerbanks, and Kobuki TB2i plates for rapid mounting to enable mobile manipulation.
These robots are used for core robotics course instruction (e.g., EE106, EE/ME 144), but are also routinely checked out to undergraduate students working on robotics-related senior design projects.
Robotics Instructional Lab @ BCOE
In late Spring 2019 we unveiled our brand-new, state-of-the-art Robotics Instructional Lab. The lab was retrofitted with new desks and chairs, and most importantly a 14-camera brand-new motion capture system (Optitrack Prime 13 together with Optitrack's active-LED marker base). The capture volume is 17ft L. x 17ft W. x 8ft H.
The motion capture system's first ever activity was during the labs of EE245 taught by K. Karydis in Spring 2019. There, students used the system for trajectory control of UAVs.
The lab is now used routinely in the instruction of core robotics courses (e.g., EE106, EE/ME144, EE283A), Senior Design Project (EE175), and for outreach purposes.
For any questions, further information, or tour requests, please contact K. Karydis and the UCR BCOE communications.
Diversifying the Future Robotics Engineers
Besides the aforementioned educational activities within UCR, K. Karydis actively seeks to increase awareness and inspire more students that remain underrepresented in robotics and STEM fields more broadly to pursue higher education and future careers in those fields. Notably, we have co-organized together with Redlands Unified School District (RUSD) a (two-week-long) summer robotics camp for middle school (8th grade) girls in July 2021. The camp is financially co-sponsored by K. Karydis's NSF CAREER award and RUSD, and is scheduled to repeat for at least as long as the NSF CAREER award is active. The camp offers an exciting opportunity to inspire young girls to learn more about foundational components in the field of robotics, both electromechanical and algorithmic ones, and to offer them a more hands-on viewpoint of what robotics engineering entails. Our goal is to help them eventually make a more educated decision regarding their future academic and professional paths, whether these include robotics, only a component of it, or another STEM-related area.