For robotics, I'd look at Carnegie Mellon University. Also, at high-end tech schools like MIT or Cal Tech, and at Stanford, which won the DARPA grand challenge, and collaborates with Google on the robot cars of tomorrow. Competition to get in may be hard there, though ;-)
Regarding "prestige" schools: that may matter in certain companies -- typically larger companies, or more conservative areas like finance or law or whatever. For high-tech companies closer to the start-up zone on the west coast, who you are and what you have actually done (projects!) matters a lot, whereas which particular school you go to matters almost not at all.