Workshops for High-School Students

Fostering Excellence in Robotics, Sunday, June 16, 2013, 1pm to 6pm, Congressional A and C

Organizers: Nuno C. Martins (UMD), Betsy Mendelsohn (UMD), William Duncan (FIRST) and Anagha Kohojkar (UMD)
Sponsors: Maryland Robotics Center and FIRST Robotics in Maryland

This workshop, organized through the Maryland Robotics Center and FIRST Robotics in Maryland, will introduce high school students to modern research in robotics, and its applications to various fields. It will consist of short presentations and demos by professors, researchers and robotics clubs from FIRST teams, local high schools and the University of Maryland.

Participants will be given a certificate of participation and access to the welcome reception.

Registration Website: Go to this link for registration. We will confirm with you and send more information before the event.

Beauty of Controls, Monday, June 17, 2013, 11am to 6pm, Congressional C

Organizers: Bozenna Pasik-Duncan (University of Kansas) and Ljubo Vlacic (Griffith University)
Sponsors: American Automatic Control Council (AACC) Technical Committee on Education and Control Systems Society (CSS) Technical Committee on Control Education

Website: Go to this link for additional details.

Registration is limited to the first 100 middle-school and high-school students who submit their completed registration forms.

Middle-school and high-school age children of ACC registrants are also welcome to attend, and that they need to register by completing this form and returning to [email protected] before June 10.

This outreach event is designed to increase the general awareness of the importance of systems and control technology and its cross-disciplinary nature among middle-school and high-school students and teachers. Control is used in many common devices and systems: cell phones, computer hard drives, automobiles, and aircraft, but is usually hidden from view. The control field spans science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The success of all STEM disciplines depends on attracting the most gifted young people to science and engineering profession. Early exposure to middle and high school students and their teachers is a key factor. The goal of these outreach efforts is to promote an increased awareness of the importance and cross-disciplinary nature of control and systems technology.

The workshop activities include presentations by control systems experts from our technical community, informal discussions, and the opportunity for teachers and students to meet passionate researchers and educators from academia and industry. The talks are designed to be educational, inspirational and entertaining showing the excitement of controls.

Lunch and afternoon refreshments will be provided. Participants will receive certificates and will be invited to the evening public lecture on 'How We Interact with Robots, Feedback Loops, and Autonomous Systems: Historical Perspectives and a Look Forward' by David Mindell of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).