UC Santa Barbara Gets Robot Research Grant

Efforts by the University of California, Santa Barbara, to distinguish itself as a major research institution got a shot in the arm Wednesday when the school was awarded a $14-million grant to establish a center for robotics.

The campus was one of eight U.S. universities selected as national engineering centers to work in different areas to assist industry.

A total of 106 universities competed for the grants.

The Santa Barbara center, to be housed in a leased building in Goleta, “will be a great national resource,” said Chancellor Robert Huttenback.

It will develop systems using so-called “intelligent” robots to produce semiconductors for computers and other microelectric devices.

It is expected that the technologies developed at the center will be used in industry to decrease production costs and increase the competitiveness of American manufacturers.

“If we don’t produce devices that are cheaper and better, we won’t be able to compete at all because we’ll be flooded by foreign competitors,” said Prof. Susan Hackwood, co-director of the center.

“A computer by itself without software is pretty worthless,” she said. “It is the same with a robot. A robot comes with a basic language whereby you can get it to move.

“Robots are clumsy and bump into things. It is our job to make them smart and fast. They are also blind, deaf and dumb. It is our job to make them see, touch and respond to their environment.”