April 21, 2015 by Merredith Portsmore

Continuing the long-standing tradition of CEEO-inspired robotics courses, Ethan Danahy and Chris Rogers taught two dynamic hands-on classes this fall for first-year and upperclass engineering students. With the new LEGO EV3 technology to power his projects, Ethan’s ES 93 – Simple Robotics course tackled a range of projects from robots that walked in new ways to ‘bots that could repeatedly draw squares. This introductory course excites students about engineering, exposes them to engineering design and introduces them to concepts in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science. Video of this year’s project can be seen below, including the “Playful Invention” final projects that tasked the students with creating toys for visiting 4-8 year old students. This annual project leveraged the power of the EV3 and fantastic student creativity.

What do students do if they love ES 93? Many of those students go on to take Chris Rogers’ upper level ME 84 Robotics course. This more advanced course goes deeper into robotics topics, such as controllers, feedback, and motor and sensor selection. Students move from LEGO robotics to the Tetrix Building system and NI myRIO. This year’s final project was to feed Tufts’ Provost David Harris a multi-course lunch. Projects ranged from automated French fry machines to robotic salad makers. Check out the gallery of pictures below, complete with Provost David Harris decked out in a poncho protection (though he thankfully didn’t need it).