Careers in Robotics

[sburns1073]

I was thinking about going into robotics in college. There is a five year program I found in which you would get your b.s. and m.s.  I was wondering if that is worth it and what kind of jobs could I get afterwords?

[jkerns]

First, what exactly is involved in this particular robotics degree? Is it an engineering degree? Computer science? Unfortunately, a degree in robotics is not as well defined as some other more traditional degrees...

Also, what kind of school is it? What kind of accreditation? What kind of reputation does the school have? All of those things will make it easier or harder to get that first job.

But, having said that - the skill set necessary for robotics can be applied in any number of industries. Industrial robotics is an obvious choice. Lots of work being done in bio-medical areas - from replacement limbs to rehabilitation devices. The auto industry is moving towards self driving vehicles - robotics skill set, right? Aerospace too.

What do you see yourself working on? (Probably one of the hardest questions to answer for most students when you really don't know what your options are and what the jobs will really be like.)

[sburns1073]

Thank you for your response.

The school is Worcester Polytechnic Institution and it has an ABET accreditation.

The program I am interested is a robotics engineering degree with a interdisciplinary focus on Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical & Computer Engineering.

I'm not sure what I want to do exactly, but I was thinking about either robots designed to interact with people or robots for scientific research (like the ones involved in programs like NASA).

[jkerns]

That is a good program. I would think you should be able to find the job you want with this degree. Other schools are now offering similar undergraduate degrees, but they are still pretty few and far between.