IEEE Robotics blog wants your feedback!

[Mikell Taylor]

Hi everyone!

IEEE Spectrum Online started a robotics blog called Automaton a couple of months ago, and we're finally getting into the groove. One of my jobs on it is to provide the perspective as a recent college grad, which includes things like internship and career opportunities and hints, competitions to join, college and graduate programs that might interest roboticists, etc. So while I have a decent idea of some things to start with, what are you interested in? What do you feel you don't know enough about?

For example, does it help you to read interviews with, say, the heads of college programs in robotics, or would you rather have a student perspective? Or just a "report" on curriculum and project requirements? Is it important to see robotics-only opportunities (WPI, CMU), or robotics-friendly ones as well? What information do you feel is missing from the shiny brochures schools send you?

I'm of course open as well to ideas about FIRST blogging, but I've got big plans for that as it is...

And if you see other cool stuff around, like videos or articles, or even want to show off something your team built, feel free to send us a tip on the blog! We'll be sure to give credit where applicable.

Thanks for your feedback -- we want to make Automaton really awesome!

~Mikell

Please feel free to move this if necessary... I think this is the right forum for this but I could be wrong!

[Greg Marra]

I didn't know that this existed. The content so far seems really great and a lot of things I hadn't heard about yet.

The sidebar is a bit intimidating, offering me a dozen sections and two dozen topics, which is information overload. I suspect this won't be bad once I get used to the site and read it frequently, but for a first time visitor it's a bit intimidating.

As far as other things to cover, I think talking to people who are at the forefront of the field would be really cool. "Robotic friendly" content seems just as important as "robotic only" content, since both offer insights into developments in robotics and how it is being applied in "the real world."

I think the site looks great so far! Keep it up!

[EDIT]
Also, who is the target audience of this blog? Is it high school students interested in robotics? Engineering students in college? Professionals in the field? All of them?
[/EDIT]

[Mikell Taylor]

Also, who is the target audience of this blog? Is it high school students interested in robotics? Engineering students in college? Professionals in the field? All of them?

Good question. Our hope is for the "all of them" option. Erico, the blog editor, is a reporter for IEEE Spectrum and really delves into backstories and interviews for kind of "reporting" on the newest stuff in the field, so that probably is most interesting to higher level robotics types (college, professionals). I like talking about consumer robots, education, competitions, events, and robot ethics/philosophy, so I think I write for a different audience -- both younger people (high school, college) and those who are interested in more than just the technical side. We're bringing on some other contributors over the next couple of months who will be able to talk more about academia, robotics in the rest of the world, and other topics that Erico and I can't cover between us. So we're hoping that there's something for everyone.

I think IEEE Spectrum, as a magazine, aims a little high in its audience's knowledge (appropriate, since it goes to IEEE members, who are probably college level or above), but the IEEE blogs are meant to be more accessible to a wider audience.