Day 1: (Mon Jan 12, Week 1) Welcome!¶

Notes for 2026-01-12.

I will post a daily agenda page for each class; this will be your essential guide to the progress of the class.

Please make a tape nametag before we begin.

Agenda¶

Introductions
- Your instructor
- Brief synopsis of the course objectives
- Mutual introductions
- Questions?
Viewings
student project examples:
- Toad Tosser
- Folding Flowers
- Robotics Inchworm
- PneumaFlora
- Jellyfish
- grubo
Discussion
Administrative
- Tour of the course site
- Laser cutter qualification: see IDeATe Laser Cutters
- IDeATe 3D-printing. 3D CAD?
- IDeATe lab access
- Health Absence Policy
- Office Hours and Zoom
- Assessment and Grading
- new Generative Artificial Intelligence policy
- new Federal Law Enforcement procedures
- Name tags and photos
brief mid-class break if needed
First assignment, due before next class: Exercise: Reading, Searching, and Skimming. Please submit your result as a Google Doc in the Exercise 1 Shared Folder prior to class.
Anatomy of a research paper (see [R9])
Techniques and skills
- Reference Management Software, Carnegie Mellon University VPN
- searching for papers (e.g. IEEE Xplore)
- citations (e.g. Bibliography of Soft Robotics (S26))
- DOI
- Zotero citation export
Brief facilities tour
- silicone casting station
- laser cutting
- 3D printing

Due before Wed Jan 14 (next class): Exercise: Reading, Searching, and Skimming. Please submit your result as a Google Doc in the Exercise 1 Shared Folder prior to class.

FAU Robotic Jellyfish

MIT Tangible Media Group - Venous Materials

Injecting liquid metal into channels for soft artificial skin