Cultivating the Future Soft Robotics Workforce through Integrated Undergraduate Research and Education

This project aims to serve the national interest by cultivating the future soft robotics workforce through integrated undergraduate research and education. The project will remove the barriers between soft robotics research and education and expose critical concepts and skills to a significant number of undergraduate students. The soft robotics educational modules developed in this project will be inexpensive and can be easily accessed, adopted, and implemented by educators from other institutions, especially those from low-resourced institutions. In addition, these modules will benefit students in both engineering and engineering technology programs. The project will lead to the creation of an education-focused website, which will be available to viewers worldwide and allow other educators to evaluate and implement soft robotics modules in their courses. The website will allow a community of soft robotics educators to share ideas to help improve the quality of education in soft robotics. The project is significant as its education, training, and dissemination activities will have long-lasting beneficial effects for future students who are interested in soft robotics. Despite its short history, soft robotics has gained significant momentum and may represent a paradigm shift in robotics that can revolutionize modern industry and society. Soft robotics, with its unprecedented capabilities, will play a significant role in Industry 5.0, which has a human-centric approach. This project will explore innovative methods for soft robotics education to prepare students for upcoming industrial technological transitions. To improve soft robotics undergraduate education, the project will pursue three main objectives: (1) bring together soft robotics research and education, (2) develop a cutting-edge soft robotics undergraduate curriculum, and (3) broaden the exposure of soft robotics modules to other institutions. Novel soft robotics educational modules, conceptualized and created by student and faculty partnerships, will be used to educate the next generation of holistic and well-rounded engineers and technologists who are capable of solving complex problems. The integrated research and education activities will inspire and engage undergraduate students to work on cutting-edge soft robotics research, empowering them with experiences and critical skills needed for the challenges and opportunities in the future job market. The outcomes from this project are expected to transform soft robotics education for undergraduate students and benefit a broad community that is interested in cultivating the future workforce in soft robotics. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.