Students working with Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Christopher Kitts send their designs to the far extremes of the planet: the depths of the seas and out into orbit. They even help sportscars run better. Professor Kitts heads a research laboratory at Santa Clara that designs and constructs robots. He is also the holder of the Robert W. Peters Professor title until 2012.

With the help of undergraduate and graduate students, the lab builds and controls crafts that conduct experiments in space, maps terrain and fault lines at the bottom of Lake Tahoe, and develops self-monitoring systems for BMW autos.

Professor Kitts stresses that what distinguishes Santa Clara University from other schools is that here the work is never simply theoretical: "Almost everything we do is geared toward a real robotics system with a real application in the real world," he says.

Watch a video about the SCU's Robotic Systems Laboratory below.

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