Fan Yang, a student going for her doctorate in construction management technology, has had a wild, years-long journey to get to America. Now that she's at Purdue, she not only has a story to share; she's here to learn.

Area high school students got to learn about the latest and greatest innovations in robotics from Purdue Polytechnic's very own SMART Lab. As part of the week-long program, they got to pick the brains of faculty and research staff, even learning how Purdue's familiar delivery robots manage to stay on target and not get lost around campus.

An interdisciplinary team of Purdue Polytechnic researchers received National Science Foundation (NSF) funding to study how teams of humans and robots will work together at construction sites. The team hopes the NSF grant will serve as the foundation for years of collaborative research to improve the efficiency and scalability of human-robot teams in constrained and complex construction workplaces.

Because of inhospitable living conditions in outer space, some of the galaxy’s next explorers will be robots. To ascertain the caliber of the world’s robotics experts, the Centennial Challenges Program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) teamed with the Space Center Houston, the official visitor center of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, for the Space Robotics Challenge. A team led by Byung-Cheol “B.C.” Min, associate professor in Purdue Polytechnic’s Department of Computer and Information Technology, is a finalist in NASA’s robotics challenge.

Purdue Polytechnic’s Richard Voyles and his research colleagues are developing pill-sized robots with artificial intelligence to help dairy farmers monitor the health of their herds.

Xiumin Diao is helping robots recognize and predict human actions. His research could lead to improvements in technology used for physical therapy and other medical applications.

A new automatic T-valve system for firefighting robots could make firefighters’ jobs less dangerous and save public lives, according to Eric Dietz.

The Anderson Trustees Youth Center BoilerBots robotics team advanced to the state finals in Evansville and are raising money to pay for the gas and other expenses of getting there.

Robots have roles in the community, and it‘s important to consider those roles during political discussions, according to Richard Voyles.