DONALD C. RICHTER obtained his B. Sc. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the Ohio State University, M.S. and Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Arkansas. He holds a Professional Engineer certification and worked as an Engineer and Engineering Manger in industry for 20 years before teaching. His interests include project management, robotics /automation and air pollution dispersion modeling.

This service learning undergraduate research project focuses on the use of humanoid robots to increase the effectiveness of therapy of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Engineers often focus on industrial applications for robotics and automation. This project allows the engineering student to learn that the skills they are learning in industrial robotics can also be applied to societal problems in the community and provide ways to give back to the community. One in sixty-eight children are diagnosed with some level of autism, with the most common treatment being Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). While ABA is an evidence-based approach, the learning process is time consuming, and it is not uncommon for an objective to take months, if not years, for a child to master. Two important consequences of this are the financial costs and the closing "window of opportunity," as therapy is often most effective in the younger, formative years. As an aid in improving ASD therapy, robots have been developed over the past decade, with noted potential for their use as "co-therapists." However, two major barriers to wider adoption of robots in therapy are the intensive programming requirements of the robots and the limited "off-the-shelf" programs available to clinicians. This paper describes a pilot project with the aim of enabling therapists to use the advanced technology of robots by eliminating these barriers through (1) the adoption of an intuitive and adaptable programming platform (NAO humanoid robot) and (2) development of an initial template program for the area of early language-communication.

obtained his B.Sc. in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the Ohio State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering from the University of Arkansas. He holds a Professional Engineer certification and worked as an Engineer and Engineering Manger in industry for 20 years before teaching. His interests include project management, HVAC, robotics/automation, and air pollution dispersion modeling.

Engineering and Engineering Technology students need to learn to innovate and embrace new technologies as they develop and progress through their careers. The undergraduate degree program needs to provide this first opportunity at innovation allowing the student to gain experience and confidence at solving technological problems. This paper describes the learning experiences in innovation using an undergraduate course in robotics and automation. The course is composed of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering Technology students. The paper relates the successful attempt the students had in developing and using innovation through the creation opened-ended industrial robot system projects. The undergraduate student project teams in the course are self-directed and have to use innovation to develop a robotic project of their own design. This breaks the cycle of students just doing the same preset experiments that others have done before them. Although doing preset experiments can reinforce theory given in classroom, it does little to develop skills in innovation, which will be the key to success in the global economy. The course provides an excellent framework for the student teams to demonstrate their ability to innovate using new technology to solve a complex problem while having the mentorship from instructors as they take their first steps in actually doing innovation. The confidence and process used to solve these problems will provide a basis upon which they can formulate new strategies to incorporate new technologies throughout their career.

M.B.A. at the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, and Ph.D. in Engineering Management at Walden University. He holds a Professional Engineer license and has 30 years of industrial experience as an Engineer or Engineering Manager at General Motors, Cadnetix, and Motorola. His interests include engineering management, technological literacy, improving the competitiveness of American companies, and real-time embedded systems.