Professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics; Director, Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems (CRES); Co-Director, Robotics Research Lab; Senior Associate Dean for Research

Viterbi School of Engineering (VSoE), University of Southern California

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Advice to Students

“What I would say to a person considering engineering – first of all I would say everyone should consider engineering. It’s the greatest path in the sense that you will definitely get a job, so don’t believe any stories about how it’s all outsourced”…”Engineering gets you jobs. But what’s more important is it gets you exciting jobs. So my advice is go visit a research lab in engineering. Go see what people do in engineering research at a local university. That will give you much more of an idea than any of the stereotypes that you might have seen. Unfortunately we don’t have TV shows about engineers that are interesting. There’s really cool engineering out there, but you don’t get to see it – so go see it!”

Education

Ph.D., Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, MIT, 1994
MS in Computer Science from MIT in 1990
BS in Computer Science from the University of Kansas in 1987

Job Description

Endows socially assistive robots with the ability help individuals with special needs, including elderly Alzheimer’s patients and children with autism.

Interview Segment

This profile is brought to you by the IEEE Educational Activities Board, through support from the IEEE Foundation.