The Research Team:
Ana Maria Porras
Ana Maria is a Track 2 junior in BME. She comes from Colombia and loves to read, dance and eat ice cream. Her mom's research used to be focused on Artificial Intelligence.
Katy Loeffler
Katy Loeffler is a Track 1 Junior in BME. She is left handed and likes to draw as a hobby. As a child, her life's ambition was to become an inventor.
Catherine Szeto
Catherine is a Track 3 junior in BME. She has a dog named Mudge and a guinea pig named Miss Momo. She enjoys dancing spontaneously and watching epic movies with robots, like Transformers.
Ellen is a Track 1 junior in BME. When not in Austin, she lives by a lake and enjoys sailing. She is of Czech heritage, like the man who invented the word 'robot'.
Bits and Bytes:
The word robot was introduced to the public by Czech writer Karel Capek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Univeral Robots), which premiered in 1921. The play begins in a factory that makes artificial people called robots, but they are closer to the modern ideas of androids and clones, creatures who can be mistaken for humans. They can plainly think for themselves, though they seem happy to serve. At issue is whether the robots are being exploited and the consequences of their treatment. The word robota means literally work, labor or serf labor, and figuratively "drudgery" or "hard work" in Czech and many Slavic languages [46].
Painting by Eric Joyner.
Cyborg: An organism that has both artificial and natural systems
Android: A robot possessing human characteristics
Humanoid: Any being whose body structure resembles that of a human