The newest addition to IE Tower, in Madrid, will be a hub for students of the Bachelor in Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence, as well as students in IE School of Science & Technology. Let’s find out what the Robotics & AI Lab has to offer and what our students and faculty have to say about it.
What’s on offer
Suzan Awinat is an Adjunct Professor at IE University and the new Robotics & AI Lab Supervisor. She thinks there’s a huge difference between theoretical learning and “creating a program and seeing the output on the screen, or seeing it physically moving or performing an action.”
Students attending the Introduction to Robotics sessions organized at the lab will learn the basics of robotics and build their very own basic robots. That means programming them and implementing the machine learning computer vision methods they learned. The following semester, they will take an even more ambitious step, working on their own projects and submitting their ideas.
If there is anything the students need to complete their projects, they will be able to request it and the lab will endeavor to provide it. The students will not only have access to high-quality computers, devices and models, but also to TIAGo, a humanoid robot who already helped unveil the new lab!
The Robotics & AI Lab is open to all students with an interest in programming and robotics. Naturally, students from the more tech-focused programs will take interest in the lab, but even students from other areas—including business—may also greatly benefit from it.
Innovating and implementing
IE University’s Robotics & AI Lab was created as a place where like-minded students can go to work on their own projects using state-of-the-art equipment and tools. Taking concepts they learn in the classroom and implementing them in a hands-on productive environment is very beneficial to students, allowing them to explore the ways the theoretical becomes tangible. Plenty of students of the Bachelor in Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence agree with that assessment.
Pablo Ortega, for example, has been working on a Sudoku solver which will have two components: “a computer vision component, which will detect the table; and a second component that will draw the numbers.” Pablo notes that the lab has enabled students to take what they learned in the classroom—the theory of robotics and AI—and apply it to real-life projects, benefiting their overall learning experience.
Diego Sanmartin says that the Robotics & AI Lab is allowing students to get practical experience in artificial intelligence. Although they already had access to AI algorithms for certain projects, the lab allows them to implement them in real life using computer vision, which is equal parts challenging and exciting.
Vera Prohaska is both a student of the Bachelor in Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence and research lead at the IE Robotics Club. Her role within the lab consists of helping students organize and submit ideas that are both feasible and able to be completed on time. Speaking of her own experience, Vera notes how the different AI modules and applications that she’s learning about in her studies are coming to life in the Robotics & AI Lab. “It’s actually applicable in real-time and in real life. … Rather than just programming and doing software, you’re actually now connecting the dots.”