HELP: ROBOTIC QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEW

[unknowndude1992]

Hey Im looking for a robotic expert because I have 10 questions to ask. It would mean so much to me if you could answer them for me. Please, please answer these questions as soon as possible.

1. What education is needed to become a robotic engineer?
    A) University- What universities offer these courses?
    B) College- What colleges offer these courses?

2. What advice would you give to high school students interested in
    robotics? 

3. What inspired you to become involved with robotics?

4. What is the best example of uses of robots and their role in society?

5. What is your favourite robotic project you have recently worked on?     
     Why?

6. I have done research on robots, but I wanted to know something
    important. If a robot ever becomes truly self aware, as self aware
    as a human, wouldn’t the robot have it’s own agenda and desires?   
     Why?

7. What is your view on the progress of robotics in surgery in the
    future?

8. Will robots ever be able to “think” in the same degree as a human?
    A) If yes, is this good or bad?
    B) If no, what could we do to make this possible?

9. A great deal of research seems to be moving forward based simply
    on a need to create a sentient machine or to be able to beat the
    Turning Test. Do you agree? Why?

10. Do you think robots are really good for society? Would you be
      happy to see robots all around the world? Why or why not?


Thank you so much, bye.

[Jeff]

well here are my quick answers

1. I know a guy who never went to college that does pretty well, but it's not easy to get a job that way
  a) Any university with a good Electrical Engineering degree will get you the basics you can build on yourself and an EE degree is more job search friendly than robotics engineering degree

2.  Get to calculas ASAP thats where math starts to be interesting, and then apply it to really understanding physics, and if you want a head start on computer hardware I would pick up "Feynman Lectures on Computation" it's a great start on digital logic.

3. Come on robots are just cool :-)

4. I think there's a pretty big lack of creativity in this area really, their main market seems to be entertainment really, like little dancing robots, I think we need to step it up a little.

5.  Added a CF WiFi card to my robot, it let me upload sensor data to my website and then I used a php script to graph it in kinda real time. Pretty fun.

6. umm your assuming humans are "self aware" or at least that "self aware" is a meaning state of a system, I'm not really sure thats proveable.  As your questions suggests we like to think of "selfa ware" as a binary condition,something that is or isn't by some standard. But personally I don't believe there is a non arbitrary standard that defines this. So then the question "wouldn’t the robot have it’s own agenda and desires" seems to really be asking will the robot do things it's not programed to. short answer no, although we can make a system to complex for us to guess what will happen next chances are the laws of physics are still holding within the robot and bits are flipping along with the laws.

7.  Looking good :-)

8.  I think they think to but to get to the same "degree" it will take some serious advances, I think it would be a good lesson in understanding how we work.

9. I'm a Turing fan but I think his test is arbitrary and I hope not too much time is being wasted on it.

10. I think robots are fun but untill there providing health care to the poor or negotiating peace deals there just kinda play things for the not so poor.  I wish they were all around the world, that would mean the world was doing a bit better :-)

hope thats helps

peace
  Jeff
 

[sotu]

unknowndude1992 i'm as old as u (If ure born in 1992) And are also interested in what schools offering a degree within robotic. Have u built ure own robot yet? Im soon done with my VERY FIRST robot and will soon post it on my webpage: www.tunliweb.no/sondre.htm
I have some few adjustments like placing a spinning blade as a wepon on it. Its going to be like a Battlebot..
Here's a great link offering good stuff for robot beginners as well as good robotics: http://www.pololu.com/products/tamiya/0061/

It's great if ure just starting at ure own robot, if u already have made a robot then post some pics of it, i would love to see how u have done it!

[trigger]

Hey Im looking for a robotic expert because I have 10 questions to ask. It would mean so much to me if you could answer them for me. Please, please answer these questions as soon as possible.

1. What education is needed to become a robotic engineer?
    A) University- What universities offer these courses?
    B) College- What colleges offer these courses?

Some mix of EE, ME, and CS.  Pick the one that's most interesting to you as a major and take some cross classes in the others.  Every decent university has these majors. 

2. What advice would you give to high school students interested in
    robotics? 

Do well enough to get into a decent university.  That's it.  Ultimately, high school is a waste of time because it doesn't prepare you for college.  So no advice will really make a difference, except don't blow it off completely.  And for the record, I blew high school off completely, still got into a good school, did well, got into a good law school, and am making enough to feed my family and buy a few things. 

3. What inspired you to become involved with robotics?

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm an electrical engineer turned patent attorney.  I like robotics because it helps me stay a little more current with EE, which helps me understand my clients better.  And I like playing with electronics.

4. What is the best example of uses of robots and their role in society?

Hmm, this is only the kind of question some high school teacher would ask.  Is this a homework assignment we're doing for you here?  Hmm?

5. What is your favourite robotic project you have recently worked on?     
     Why?

I'm working on my first robot from scratch.  I worked on a robot during college, but that doesn't really count since I only did the software.  So far I've built the power supply, and I'm ordering other parts.

6. I have done research on robots, but I wanted to know something
    important. If a robot ever becomes truly self aware, as self aware
    as a human, wouldn’t the robot have it’s own agenda and desires?   
     Why?

Of course, because as you said--it's "as a human."  Humans have agendas and desires.

7. What is your view on the progress of robotics in surgery in the
    future?

The more the merrier.  Geez, this is really starting to sound like a high school assignment.

8. Will robots ever be able to “think” in the same degree as a human?
    A) If yes, is this good or bad?
    B) If no, what could we do to make this possible?

For religious reasons, I say no, definitely not. 

9. A great deal of research seems to be moving forward based simply
    on a need to create a sentient machine or to be able to beat the
    Turning Test. Do you agree? Why?

What??? Do you mean the Turing test?

10. Do you think robots are really good for society? Would you be
      happy to see robots all around the world? Why or why not?

Probably, if they spur on the economy.  Robots already are all around the world, depending on what you think a robot is. 

Thank you so much, bye.

[morgansaysthis]

i don't know really anything about robots, this is a brand new hobby for me


but i am well versed in programming and i thought i would say something about your #8 and #6 question

as for #6

any agenda a robot is given is the result of a human giving it that agenda, computers can not in any sense or any way act on there own, a good way to think about it is like a RC car, it is controlled by the person with the remote, and can never act on its own. its only goes forward when the user press's forward, its the same with programing but in that case the programmer has told it what to do if a specific thing happens, so essentially, its like have the instructions for the RC car recorded before it was used




#8

robots our controlled by programming, and unless that stops, there is know way for a robot to think on our level


to be honest, computers are the stupidest thing around, you have to explain everything to them, they cant fill in any blanks for them selves. any decision a robot makes is a result of a human predicting that decision would arrive, and telling it what numbers and true or falses to put together to get the answer, and then, how to react to the answer


there might be a way scientifically to make a robot think on our level, but its not going to happen through programming, computers are one of the most useful tools around, and robots can be and are just as useful, but as far as intelligence goes, by definition robots have zero and there programs have zero, there programmers just forced them to react to there environment in a way that imitates intelligence, hence Artificial Intelligence



so anyways thats my 2 cents

[Brandon121233]

#8
robots our controlled by programming, and unless that stops, there is know way for a robot to think on our level
to be honest, computers are the stupidest thing around, you have to explain everything to them, they cant fill in any blanks for them selves. any decision a robot makes is a result of a human predicting that decision would arrive, and telling it what numbers and true or falses to put together to get the answer, and then, how to react to the answer
there might be a way scientifically to make a robot think on our level, but its not going to happen through programming, computers are one of the most useful tools around, and robots can be and are just as useful, but as far as intelligence goes, by definition robots have zero and there programs have zero, there programmers just forced them to react to there environment in a way that imitates intelligence, hence Artificial Intelligence

so anyways thats my 2 cents

that's probably THE best way I have ever seen that question answered, that directly parallels my thoughts

[Admin]

I partly disagree with #8 . . .

For an algorithm, its 100% correct. The robot will only do what the programmer intentionally/unintentionally tells it to do. But for AI it isnt true . . .

What is the difference between an algorithm and AI? The programmer only uses algorithms for solved problems.

For example . . .
If you are a programmer and trying to get a robot to walk, but you dont know how to program that, what you do instead is program a learning algorithm into the robot. Its slower, less efficient, and may not work, but if the learning algorithm is good enough the robot will over time figure out how to solve the problem that the programmer was not able to do. In AI, the programmer doesnt tell the robot the answer, but instead tells the robot how to find the answer.

This doesnt just apply to robots, but to our brains too. If we know the answer, we can write it down really fast (using a known algorithm). But if we dont, our brains go through a whole host of 'learning algorithms' to solve the problem. If a robot can learn new things on its own, it by default will be smarter than what the programmer programs in.

The day robots have more efficient/faster learning algorithms than humans is the day we are all screwed