The computer and information sciences department will institute a robotics elective course in fall 2002, but the course will not be teaching students to build Battle Bots.

"This [the new course] is not Battle Bots," said Dr. Charles Winton, referring to a program on the Comedy Central cable network that features robots built specifically to battle each other. Winton was the recipient of a $63,000 curriculum grant from the National Science Foundation. UNF matched the grant, raising Winton's total award to $126,000.

"I've been interested in teaching a robotics course for quite some time," Winton said. The new course will be a junior- and senior-level elective in the computer science program. The grant money will be spent on laboratory equipment necessary for a robotics course, including microprocessors, motors and sensors used in the development of autonomous robots.

"They [students] could do some pretty sophisticated stuff [in the class]," Winton said. The branch of robotics students will be exploring is considered an area of artificial intelligence. However, the course will be more focused on the mechanics and the software to use the mechanics. The department also offers an artificial intelligence course as a major elective.

"I think this branch of robotics is at this time where personal computers were in the 80's," said Dr. Winton.