Students to Display Robots at Museum of Science and Industry

Students in Northwestern Engineering’s Master of Science in Robotics (MSR) program will get to introduce their work to the public as part of National Robotics Week at the Museum of Science and Industry. 

The students will display their work, along with students from other universities, on April 7-8 around the Museum’s iconic Rotunda.

“The general public gets to see the very practical and exciting side of robotics,” says MSR Professor and Program Director Todd Murphey. “The news, and even movies, can be misleading in many ways, sometimes making robotic technology sound more capable than it is and sometimes understating its value to society.”

National Robotics Week is a collection of events and activities spread out across the country during the second full week of April. The goal is to increase public awareness of the U.S. robotics industry and showcase the impact robotics will have on cultures and societies.

Students will be able to discuss their work and their robotics with a wide variety of audiences: engineers with technical knowledge, people who think about the philosophical implications of robots and their integration into everyday life, children who think robots look cool, and more. The diverse population helps the students learn how to present their studies, their robots and their backgrounds in a variety of ways.

“This helps (the students) think about why they are doing what they do and what the purpose of robotics should be over the next decades,” Murphey says. “Children who attend the Museum during National Robotics Week get to be inspired by the fact that not all the challenges have been solved already.”