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An interdisciplinary field robotics program for undergraduate computer science and engineering education

Santa Clara University's Robotic Systems Laboratory conducts an aggressive robotic development and operations program in which interdisciplinary teams of undergraduate students build and deploy a wide range of robotic systems, ranging from underwater vehicles to spacecraft. These year-long projects expose students to the breadth of and interdependence among engineering disciplines, the span of processes in a system development lifecycle, and the challenges of managing a development process. Over the past five years, this program has provided more than 150 students with exposure to computer science and engineering topics, including software engineering, algorithm development, human-computer interface design, and artificial intelligence. This program provides exciting and compelling educational opportunities for students, offers real-world applications that naturally motivate the need for specific computing technologies, and serves a broader research and development program that utilizes the functional robotic systems to support externally-funded science and technology demonstration missions. The experience of the authors, as well as formal program assessment data, show that this program provides strong student motivation for learning, offers comprehensive and valuable educational experiences, and enhances student performance. This article reviews the Santa Clara robotics program, highlights the role of computer science and engineering in several projects, and presents the assessment data showing the positive results of this program.