Available for Fall 2024
The Robotics Graduate Certificate will provide knowledge for integrating hardware and software with algorithms to create the next generation of intelligent machines and will enhance students’ graduate degrees with an additional or stand-alone credential in robotics to list on their resume.
Graduate Certificate Requirements
Student must be:
A University of Utah graduate degree seeking student OR
A non-matriculated student enrolled at the University of Utah. A bachelor's degree in a STEM field is required, and non-matriculated status is only available to domestic students.
- This entire certificate can be completed as a non-degree seeking/non-matriculated student, however if students decide they want to apply the courses towards a M.S. or Ph.D. graduate program, only 9 credits of non-matriculated courses are allowed to count towards the degree so students should apply to the Graduate School prior to completing their 9th non-matriculated credit.
The graduate certificate is geared towards students completing degrees in Mechanical, Electrical, Computer Engineering or Computer Science. Students with other degrees might need to complete additional math, science, and engineering prerequisites to enroll in the robotics courses, which may add additional time to graduate.
Students can potentially complete the certificate in the same amount of time as their M.S. or Ph.D. degree, if they plan their certificate courses carefully and complete their required project on time.
Students wanting to complete the Robotics Graduate Certificate must be first be admitted as a degree-seeking or non-degree seeking student. After being admitted to the University, fill out the below certificate application and meet with the Robotics Graduate Student Coordinator to make sure you understand the certificate requirements. Degree-seeking students can fill out this application anytime prior to their last semester of their degree program, but the sooner the better. Non-degree seeking students should fill this out prior to enrolling in any courses.
More information for Non-Degree Seeking students. NOTE: All non-degree seeking applications are processed by undergraduate admissions so do not attempt to find it on the graduate student application. Non-degree seeking students also have to wait until the open enrollment date listed on the Academic Calendar to register for classes, which is after most other students.
Robotics Graduate Certificate requirements
Complete all of the Following:
- 4 Core courses
- 1 Elective
- 1 Robotics Seminar
- 2 Credits of Graduate Project or Project-Intensive Course
Minimum total of 18 credit hours
Click on each section below for more details.
Complete at least one course from each core area:
Robotics Mechanics Core Area
- ROBOT 6000 | Robotics I: Mechanics | 3 Credits (Also accepted: cross-listed courses CS 6310 or ECE 6650 or ME EN 6220)
Robot Control Core Area
- ROBOT 6100 | Robotics II: Control | 3 Credits (Also accepted: cross-listed courses CS 6330 or ECE 6651 or ME EN 6230)
Cognition Core Area (Pick One)
- ROBOT 6200 | Motion Planning | 3 Credits (Also accepted: cross-listed courses CS 6370 or ME EN 6225)
- CS 6300 | Artificial Intelligence | 3 Credits
Perception Core Area (Pick One)
- CS 6640 or BME 6640 or ECE 6532 (cross-listed)| Digital Image Processing | 3 Credits
- CS 6320 | Computer Vision | 3 Credits
Required Core Area Credit Hour Sub-Total: 12 Credits
Select 1 class from any category.
Core courses listed above that are not used to fulfill a core area requirement may also be considered.
Robot Mechanics Category Electives
- ROBOT 7000 | Manipulation and Mobility | 3 Credits (Also accepted: cross-listed courses ME EN 7230 or CS 7310)
- ROBOT 7010 | System Identification for Robotics | 3 Credits (Also accepted: cross-listed courses ME EN 7220 or CS 7320)
Robot Control Category Electives
- ME EN 6200 or ECE 6615 (cross-listed) | Classical Control Systems | 3 Credits
- ECE 6670 | Control of Electric Motors | 3 Credits
- ME EN 6210 or ECE 6652 or CH EN 6203 (cross-listed) | State Space Control | 3 Credits
- ME EN 7200 | Nonlinear Control | 3 Credits
- ME EN 7210 | Optimal Control | 3 Credits
- ECE 6570 | Adaptive Control | 3 Credits
Cognition Category
- CS 6350 | Machine Learning | 3 Credits
- CS 6958 | Robot Learning (currently special topics) | 3 Credits
Perception Category
- CS 7640 | Advanced Image Processing | 3 Credits
- CS 6353 | Deep Learning for Image Analysis | 3 Credits
- ECE 6530 | Digital Signal Processing | 3 Credits
Human-Robot Interaction Category
- CS 6360 | Virtual Reality | 3 Credits
- ROBOT 7400 | Haptics for VR, Teleoperation, and Physical Human-Robot Interaction | 3 Credits
(Also accepted cross-listed course ME EN 7240) - ROBOT 6400 | Neural Engineering and NeuroRobotics | 3 Credits
(Also accepted cross-listed courses BME 6440 or ECE 6654)
Robot Design Category
- ROBOT 6500 or ME EN 6240 | Advanced Mechatronics | 4 Credits
- ROBOT 6960 | Wearable Robotics (currently special topics) | 3 Credits
- ECE 6780 or CS 6780 | Embedded System Design | 4 Credits
- ECE 6960 | Robotic Millisystems (currently special topics class) | 3 Credits
- CS 6956 | Medical Robotics | 3 Credits
Other Supporting Elective Category
- ME EN 6035 | Design of Experiments | 3 Credits
- ME EN 6100 | Ergonomics | 3 Credits
- ECE 6540 | Estimation Theory | 3 Credits
- CS 6540 | Human-Computer Interaction | 3 Credits
- ME EN 6410 | Intermediate Dynamics | 3 Credits
- CS 6340 | Natural Language Processing | 3 Credits
- ME EN 6205 | System Dynamics | 3 Credits
Elective Course Sub-Total: 3 Credits
- ROBOT 6800 or CS 7942 or ECE 6868 or ME EN 6892 | Robotics Seminar | 1 Credit
Certificate participants must complete an approved (by robotics faculty) minimum two credit hour robotics project with a short final presentation (e.g. in the robotics seminar, at a conference, etc.). The project can be fulfilled as part of a faculty-advised project, student club, industry project (i.e. through an internship), or an approved project-intensive class: Advanced Mechatronics, Wearable Robotics, Motion Planning, Computer Vision, and Neural Engineering & NeuroRobotics are currently approved. Students taking project-intensive courses may result in additional credits beyond the minimum required for the certificate. The final project(s) must be approved by the Director of Robotics Studies. Students must enroll in ROBOT 6920 if completing an independent or industry project/internship. All students must complete the presentation portion regardless of how they are fulfilling this requirement.
Mixed Option: Complete a combination of the below for a minimum total of 6 credits
- ROBOT 6920 | Graduate Project | 1-3 Credits
or
- Approved coursework with intensive projects | 3-6 Credits
- Approved Project Intensive Courses include: Advanced Mechatronics, Wearable Robotics, Motion Planning, Computer Vision, and Neural Engineering & Neurorobotics (course numbers above). Courses can be counted as part of the minimum 21 coursework credits. Students choosing to take project-intensive courses to fulfill the project requirement will need to take additional approved courses to reach the 30 credit hour minimum to complete the degree.
Kelly Pearson
Robotics Graduate Student Coordinator
kelly.pearson@utah.edu
Interested students may also contact Director of Robotics Studies, Dr. Stephen Mascaro