Super Toys Last All Summer Long

Everything you always wanted to know about Robots but were afraid to ask

I think robots are neat. Who wouldn't? If you're in the math faculty, you've written (or seen your group members write) a computer program, so you know what it's like to Create with Technology. Now, imagine this: instead of creating a deck of cards with a picture of your professor's face on the back, you created something that seemed alive: Imagine if your homework could cook you breakfast, wheel your books to school, dance to your old polka records, give "high-fives" to passing "babes." Imagine the possibilities.

The trouble is, I don't know much about robots. Much to my chagrin, CS 241 is not entitled "Foundations of Sequential Programs and Robots," nor does the University offer a course listed as "FINE 251 — Teaching your Robot the Lindy Hop" or even "SOC 373 — Robots: Are They the Future of Humanity." Whatever its strengths, the CS curriculum wasn't designed with robots in mind. Fair enough: We'll just have to find our robots elsewhere.

Here's my plan: A series of themed mathNEWS articles about robots. Possible themes include "A brief history of research in robotics," "robots and science fiction," "10 Robot Projects You Can Build to Impress your Friends and Foil your Enemies," and "Robots: will they Control the Future?"

Do you think Robots are neat? Do you know anything about robots? Have you ever built a robot? Can you do the robot? I need your help: e-mail pcdilts@uwaterloo.ca with ideas, tips, comments, pictures, links, or videos of you bustin' out a mean robot on the dance floor.

Philip "Dreaming of Electric Sheep" Dilts