Lisa Collins & Haley Collins, “The Advancement into Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Robotics”
Mentor: Mohammad Rahman, Biomedical Engineering

The project that has been underway is one that looks into the future of advanced robotic systems and the use of artificial intelligence, AI, for use in healthcare, biomedical sciences, industrial, and workforce settings. From Hanson Robotics’ Sophia to Department of Defenses’ Modular Prosthetic Limb, the AI sector has continued to rapidly evolve and adapt the needs of humanity. This research aims to gain a higher level of understanding regarding the development and use of AI and robotics, from a basic level to the most complex, and to build a model of how a single algorithm could allow AI to grow and learn beyond its present state. This project has been centered around the development of artificial intelligence, the societal perception of AI, and the research into creating the android structure to replicate the mechanisms of the human anatomy as well as the human function. The project is an extensive one which will require time and effort across disciplines to develop the algorithm for a computer to learn as well as developing the neural networks and the capacity to replicate the natural mechanisms in a robotic android form. The basic concept of developing an AI with the ability to think, reason, and learn, is possible through the institution of very minimal coding, and working further toward this research will provide answers to the questions arising from how to succeed in this. Societal and cultural aspects and prejudices are investigated, with the eventual goal of the project to collaborate with multiple disciplines across the scientific field to create an android with lifelike mechanisms and the capacity to learn, think, feel, and make decisions. This will benefit society as a whole in the healthcare and occupational setting.