Cleaning Up Space and Mapping the Seas with Robots

alqian@yahoo.com (Albert Qian) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:56:51 PST

Students studying with Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Christopher Kitts send their work to the far extremes of the planet: the depths of the seas and out into orbit...

Building a Robot That Can Save Lives

alqian@yahoo.com (Albert Qian) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:41:17 PST

The chance to build cool stuff in Santa Clara University?s robotics lab is what drew senior Casey Kute from Louisville, Kentucky, to Santa Clara. ?I love hands-on work,? she says. ?Actually building something helps learning so much.?...

Using Robots to Help Surgeons Learn

alqian@yahoo.com (Albert Qian) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:15:27 PST

With a team at Johns Hopkins University, Carol Reiley ’05 builds optic computers that evaluate surgical technique in the operating room. Carol will earn her Ph.D. in 2010, specializing in surgical robotics at the Johns Hopkins’ Computational Interaction and Robotics Lab. Carol brings expertise in a range of fields—computers, robotics, and engineering—to research that will help medical students learn intricate and precise procedures.

It was Carol’s experience as an undergraduate mechanical engineering major at Santa Clara that led her to this specialty, particularly research in the robotics lab with Associate Professor Christopher Kitts. “Professor Kitts showed me this really interesting field, haptics—the sense of touch for robots,” she says. As a senior, Carol built a remote-operated robotic arm that gave the operator force feedback. She and her team created an arm that could allow users to tell the difference between the tactile force needed to pick up a rock and that needed to pick up an egg.

Carol says studying engineering at Santa Clara was ideal, because of the location. “Silicon Valley is right where everything is happening.”

She hopes to return to the area after earning her doctorate, and to pursue teaching. “Because of Professor Kitts, I understand what a good teacher is. Professors at Santa Clara care about their students; they changed my life. I want to give back.”

SCU Stories

Cleaning Up Space and Mapping the Seas with Robots

Building a Robot That Can Save Lives

Using Robots to Help Surgeons Learn

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