HVCC and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have teamed up to offer a new robotics course this fall that was unveiled Aug. 2 during a demonstration in the Gene F. Haas Center for Advanced Manufacturing Skills. Students from the Questar III & HVCC STEM High School participated in the event.
The new, hands-on course will be co-taught by professors from both colleges and introduce students to the multi-disciplinary field of robotics, using state-of-the-art industrial robots from Fanuc and Universal Robots.
Local news media covered the event, including:
WNYT NBC News Channel 13
WRGB CBS 6 News
WTEN ABC News 10
New HVCC, RPI course invites high schoolers to explore robotics
Starting this fall, students from Questar III Stem high school will be able to take an introduction to robotics course co-taught by HVCC and RPI professors.
Julian Silva-Forbes / Times Union / Aug. 3, 2023
TROY — A new course at Hudson Valley Community College will invite local high school students to explore the world of robotics.
Starting this fall, students from Questar III Stem high school can enroll in an introduction to robotics course at HVCC co-taught by professors from HVCC and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Enrolled students will learn how to program robots while gaining hands-on experience with industrial robotic equipment from Fanuc and Universal Robots.
“Twenty years ago, these robots would require a Ph.D. to do anything,” said HVCC engineering instructor Dean O’Dell. After taking the robotics course, he said that future high school graduates can “go to their employers and have an extra skill to provide. They’ll be able to hopefully make a little bit more money and make their companies more productive in our local Capital Region.”
The pilot course this fall will include 11 tenth graders from Questar III STEM high school. Located on the HVCC campus, the high school allows its students to earn college credits in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“It’s really exciting to be here,” said Ryan Auger, one of the high school students who will enroll in the course this fall. “Just to get the experience, to use all the robots and to get the college credits… and to get the chance to learn early about it (robotics).”
Professor John Wen, the head of RPI’s electrical, computer and systems engineering department, hopes the course can make high schoolers like Auger more comfortable with robotics.
“It may look intimidating at first, but we want to get them feeling comfortable so they can build up confidence and then start injecting their own creativity,” Wen said. “The idea is not just to learn programming skills but also once you have those skills, how to employ those skills to do creative, interesting things.”
Wen said that students will learn to integrate different touch sensors, proximity sensors, and cameras, among other robot features.
Professor Linda Lim, the department chair of computer science and mathematics at HVCC, noted that the course will have no prerequisites. As a result, she said future classes could even include first-year high schoolers.
“It’s a bit of a dream come true for me,” said Lim. “When I started my grad work at RPI, I took introduction to robotics, but we didn’t actually do robotics … if somebody had had these (the robots at HVCC) available that would have been the greatest thing.”
Wen pointed out that many current RPI undergraduates do not get the chance to get hands-on experience with comparable industrial robots until their junior or senior year.
HVCC and RPI have collaborated for decades on joint programs. However, the course this fall is the first time the two schools will collaborate on a robotics program catered to high school students.
“During COVID, HVCC really ramped up its robotics capability and facilities,” Wen said. “When we visited last year to discuss the potential expansion of our collaboration, robotics immediately jumped to the forefront.”
