FCRAR: Florida Conference in Recent Advancements in Robotics
For the past three years, I have been working as an undergraduate research assistant for Professor Pierre Larochelle in the Robotics and Spatial Systems Laboratory at FIT.
Not only is this a fantastic resume builder, but I have also gotten tons of learning experience working with different robots like Pantherbot and Mottoman. This job has also landed me internships like working for NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the National Institute of Technology. And on top of all of the perks, this job also opens up opportunities for me to participate in various conferences relating to the field I am most interested in: robotics.
This year, Larochelle and the lab’s co-workers have decided to host this year’s Florida Conference in Recent Advancements in Robotics, or FCRAR. This conference allows people from around the state to come and present on their recent advancements regarding robotics. There are several sub-categories that these presenters are categorized in and where papers can be submitted to be published in the conference’s journal.
Some of the categories in which there is interest for technical papers are Mechatronics, Machine Vision, Micro and Nano Scale Robotics, and Serial and Parallel manipulators, among others. People participating in this conference will have the chance to present in one of the three presentation sessions in the morning of the conference, and after lunch, there will be a robotic showcase where people can display and demonstrate the physical system they have built and researched upon. At the end of the conference, there is a big dinner where all the participants can socialize and learn more about each other’s research.
Apart from helping set up and host the conference along with the rest of my lab’s co-workers, I will also be participating in the actual presentation and showcase of the conference by submitting the final critical design review paper for my senior design team. I will also be very excited and very proud to also present our functional rover and robotic arm during the showcase.
This gives me a great opportunity to add even more technical experience to my resume. Companies like to see technical conference experience because it shows that you can successfully deliver technical information to a new crowd in a brief manner without losing any important information. Not to mention, it personally builds presentation confidence and skills, which are useful in any scenario.
If you are interested in volunteering, participating or submitting papers for the conference, you can find all of the information on this website. The conference will take place on campus on May 14 and 15. This conference also has no registration fee (a huge plus) and all the authors retain all copyright of their work. It’s an all-around great opportunity to bring one’s hard research work to light, so be sure to participate if you have any work!
Until next time, Panthers!
