Expanding Robotics Education at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

NSF and ARTSI form a partnership to increase minority participation in science and engineering

January 18, 2008

The National Science Foundation (NSF) commemorated the upcoming birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. with a kick-off for the new Advancing Robotics Technology for Societal Impact (ARTSI) Alliance. Funded by a three-year, $2 million grant from NSF, ARTSI will develop outreach and education programs to encourage African-American students at both the K-12 and college level to pursue degrees and careers in computer science and robotics.

The event earlier this week featured demonstrations by the SpelBots, Spelman College's celebrated robotics team, a presentation of a robot designed by a University of the District of Columbia student and a keynote speech by ARTSI director Andrew Williams, a computer science professor at Spelman and founder of the SpelBots.

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