Robots and Oates

This post is prompted by the fact that my team won the Robotics class Championship:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xm0LNk3x24

Robots are a lot harder than you think they are. We had an assignment where we had to write how we would design a robot that would take orders from students in the ITE building and deliver them food from our Commons. It was really hard. I think of movies like Robots (with Robin Williams) and Pixar's Wall-E. The robots in those films are far too human like. They reach for a kind of technology that we don't yet have. However, it's a kind of technology that Dr. Oates (one of my favorite professors, and the robots instructor) thinks is achievable. Rather than recap it, I am just going to point you to some Oates resources. I really do want you to read the first link, with his thoughts about the future of robotics - I think there's some great food for thought there. I also think it's worth it to check out his appearance on Prog. Rock Block, because come on, a professor who's willing to do a radio show with one of his students is AMAZING.

Here's his profile on the CSEE website, where he talks about his robot dreams and has an amazing smile:
http://www.csee.umbc.edu/research/research-profiles/dr-tim-oates/

The class website for our robotics class, with details about SumoBots (the competition linked above):
http://www.csee.umbc.edu/courses/undergraduate/479/

And, to prove how awesome he truly is...here is the time he and Alec hosted Alec's radio show together.
http://www.pulianas.com/Alec_Pulianas/The_Prog_Rock_Block/Entries/2012/3/15_Episode_18__Dr._Oates_Special.html