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ECE department works toward developing Robotics Engineering major

ECE labMiami’s Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department is in the process of developing a Robotics Engineering (RE) major.

Dr. Qihou Zhou, professor and chair of the department, is at the forefront of the process.

In October, Dr. Zhou gave a presentation on the potential new major to the CEC External Advisory Council at their annual fall meeting.

All new majors have to go through a lengthy sequence of approvals, not only from Miami’s internal CEC department, University Senate and Board of Trustees, but the Ohio Board of Regents as well.

Since beginning the development process over summer 2019, an approval timeline and new course proposals have been created.

The prospective RE major is pan-disciplinary, with a curriculum that spreads across three departments: CSE, ECE and MME. Eight new courses have been designed specifically for the major, including Computer Vision, Kinematics of Robotics and Sensors and Data Fusion.

Students would have the opportunity to choose one of three possible specialties within the major: Automation, Intelligent Systems and General Robotics.

Dr. Zhou believes that students who would pursue this major would be very successful post-graduation.

“When you think about where the world is heading, there is certainly a lot of automation robotics,” he said. “I think there is a lot of need for people in [the field].”

The goal is to have the major approved by the state by the fall of 2020 and recruit incoming students in the fall of 2021.

By Jenna Calderón, CEC Reporter