[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

Students pursuing computer science, engineering or any other undergraduate degree at Carnegie Mellon University now have the option to include an additional major in robotics.

Current CMU students interested in the additional major should plan to apply for the program by Feb. 1 of their freshman year, sophomores also are welcome to apply. High school students and other non-CMU students must first apply and be admitted as a CMU undergrad before applying for the additional major in robotics.

Matt Mason (Director, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon): The Robotics Institute always has been at the forefront, not only of robotic technology, but of the education of roboticists.

The curriculum will include instruction on control systems, movement, machine perception, systems engineering and cognition and reasoning. Hands-on courses will focus on designing, building and programming robots.

The university, through its Robotics Institute, already offers more undergraduate robotics courses than any other university in the world and for the past 12 years has offered an undergraduate minor in robotics.