Tom Lauwers, Robotics. (Advisor:  Illah Nourbakhsh)
5th yr PIER-7th yr Robotics
tlauwers@andrew.cmu.edu
Tom received his degree at CMU in Electrical Engineering and Public Policy in 2003.  His undergraduate years were primarily spent in the robotics club room, though he occasionally ventured outside for fresh air and sunshine.  As co-president of the club, he worked to develop technologies that aided club members and others in creating robotics projects.  This effort culminated in the commercialization of a low cost microcontroller for hobbyists and students to use as the brain for their robots, and the creation of a class at the CMU student college, Fun with Robots, in which students build and program robots that they keep at the end of the semester.   
Tom decided he loved Pittsburgh enough to stay an additional six years, and after graduating enrolled in the Robotics Ph.D program.  For his first two years he worked on a project to balance a robot on a ball, but then he realized that the most he ever enjoyed his work was when other people used it to create and learn, and so decided to refocus his studies on educational robotics.  He now works in the CREATE lab and studies ways to design new technologies so that they are aligned with the learning goals and audiences of specific curricula.  Tom also teaches a student college course, Gadgetry 101, in which people learn how to make their own electronic gadget.