The Michigan Robotics Undergraduate Curriculum: Defining the Discipline of Robotics for Equity and Excellence

TL;DR

The University of Michigan launched an innovative, inclusive Robotics undergraduate program emphasizing equity and excellence, resulting in increased student engagement, successful graduates, and strong partnerships, setting a new standard for robotics education.

Contribution

This paper presents a novel, adaptable curriculum for robotics education that prioritizes equity and excellence, serving as a model for inclusive higher education in robotics.

Findings

Over 100 students declared Robotics as their major in the first year

First two graduates completed the Robotics major

Increased enrollments and partnerships with HBCUs

Abstract

The Robotics Major at the University of Michigan was successfully launched in the 2022-23 academic year as an innovative step forward to better serve students, our communities, and our society. Building on our guiding principle of "Robotics with Respect" and our larger Robotics Pathways model, the Michigan Robotics Major was designed to define robotics as a true academic discipline with both equity and excellence as our highest priorities. Understanding that talent is equally distributed but opportunity is not, the Michigan Robotics Major has embraced an adaptable curriculum that is accessible through a diversity of student pathways and enables successful and sustained career-long participation in robotics, AI, and automation professions. The results after our planning efforts (2019-22) and first academic year (2022-23) have been highly encouraging: more than 100 students declared Robotics as their major, completion of the Robotics major by our first two graduates, soaring enrollments in our Robotics classes, thriving partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities. This document provides our original curricular proposal for the Robotics Undergraduate Program at the University of Michigan, submitted to the Michigan Association of State Universities in April 2022 and approved in June 2022. The dissemination of our program design is in the spirit of continued growth for higher education towards realizing equity and excellence. The most recent version of this document is also available on Google Docs through this link: https://ocj.me/robotics_major