Master’s Thesis (ROBO 9990)
ROBO 9990 (formerly known as ROBO 5970) is the Master’s Thesis course option. The course consists of 2 CU’s of research credit taken over consecutive semesters, ultimately culminating in a thesis, or research paper based on joint work with other researchers. Both CU’s of ROBO 9990 are approved technical electives. Students are permitted to conduct Master’s Thesis research with any faculty member at Penn, as long as the research project is pre-approved by their GRASP Faculty Advisor and the ROBO Program Chair.
All thesis projects must be approved before enrollment. Students may begin this process by filling out the “ROBO Thesis Approval Form” (found here) and submitting the completed form to the ROBO Graduate Coordinator (robo-coord@seas.upenn.edu), who will then obtain final approval by the ROBO Program Chair. If a student’s primary project advisor is not a Primary GRASP Faculty Member, the student’s ROBO advisor must sign off on the project, agree to review it, and officially submit the final grade.
Due to internal processing times, this form should be submitted to the ROBO Graduate Coordinator at least one week prior to the add/drop deadline for the semester. Once a thesis project is approved, the student will be notified and provided a course CRN number to enroll via Path at Penn. *Please note: ROBO 9990 course sections are not listed on Path at Penn and a CRN number must be obtained to register.
At the end of the second semester of ROBO 9990 (and before the time designated on the approval form), the student should submit a thesis proposal to their advisor for evaluation and recommendations. Thesis guidelines may be found here. Once the thesis has been approved by the student’s thesis advisor, the advisor-approved paper must be submitted to the ROBO Program Chair at least 1 full week before the last day of classes. A required public presentation (15 minutes) of the work will be made on a specified date during finals week of that same semester.
View ROBO Master’s Thesis Projects from December 2020 here and May 2021 here.
Independent Study (ROBO 5990)
ROBO 5990 is the Independent Study course option, which consists of 1 CU of research credit and is an approved technical elective toward the ROBO degree. During Independent Study, students will work on a research project under the limited supervision of a faculty member. Students are permitted to conduct Independent Study research with any faculty member at Penn, as long as the research project is pre-approved by their GRASP Faculty Advisor and the ROBO Program Chair.
All Independent Study research projects/topics must be approved before enrollment. Students may begin this process by filling out the “ROBO 5990 – Independent Study Approval Form” (found here) and submitting the completed form to the ROBO Graduate Coordinator (robo-coord@seas.upenn.edu), who will then obtain final approval of these materials by the ROBO Program Chair. If a student’s primary project/topic advisor is not a Primary GRASP Faculty Member, the student’s ROBO advisor must sign off on the project/topic, agree to review it, and officially submit the final grade.
We ask that this form is submitted to the ROBO Graduate Coordinator at least one week prior to the add/drop deadline of the semester. Once the project is approved, the student will be notified and provided a course CRN number to enroll via Path at Penn. *Please note ROBO 5990 course sections are not listed on Path at Penn and a CRN number must be obtained to register.
| ROBO 5990 Project Examples from Previous Semesters: | Supervised By: |
| “Interactive Robot Task Verification” | Dinesh Jayaraman |
| “Fundamental Challenges in Deep Learning for Stiff Contact Dynamics” | Michael Posa |
| “Design of Self-righting System for an Origami Jumping Robot” | Cynthia Sung |
Note: Students are permitted to enroll in both ROBO 5970 and ROBO 5990 over the course of their studies; however, the research project may not be the same for both courses.
CAPSTONE (ROBO 598)
ROBO 5980 is the Master’s Capstone course option. The course consists of 2 CU’s of research credit taken over consecutive semesters. Students will work as a group on a specific project under the supervision of a GRASP Faculty member or industry member. Students will receive an email over the Summer with available projects. Once a Capstone project is approved, the student will be notified and provided a course CRN number to enroll via Path at Penn. *Please note: ROBO 5980 course sections are not listed on Path at Penn and a CRN number must be obtained to register.
Contacts for Research Inquiries:
In addition to ROBO 9990, ROBO 5980 and ROBO 5990, ROBO MSE students are welcome to participate in research independently outside of their coursework. We encourage ROBO students to connect with GRASP Faculty members to inquire about current projects and potential collaborations. See the list below for links to Research Group websites as well as the best point of contact for inquiries.
| Research Group: | Best Contact: |
| Chaudhari Research Group | Pratik Chaudhari |
| Lifelong Machine Learning | Eric Eaton |
| Perception, Action, & Learning Group | Dinesh Jayaraman |
| Kod*lab | Dan Koditschek (cc: Diedra Krieger) |
| Matni Research Group | Nikolai Matni |
| Nanorobotics Lab | Marc Miskin |
| DAIR Lab | Michael Posa |
| Sung Robotics Lab | Cynthia Sung |
| ModLab | Mark Yim |
| Daniilidis Research Group | Kostas Daniilidis |
| ScalAR Lab | Ani Hsieh |
| Rehabilitation Robotics Lab | Michelle Johnson |
| Kumar Lab | Vijay Kumar (cc: Ryan Hampton) |
| Pappas Research Group | George Pappas |
| Shi Research Group | Jianbo Shi |
| Taylor Research Group | CJ Taylor |
CPT – Curricular Practical Training
Graduate students in Engineering who meet the USCIS eligibility criteria may apply for academic credit for the purposes of F-1 curricular practical training (CPT). In order to be eligible for CPT, you must have already completed one academic year (September to May) of course work, full-time at Penn, but have not completed all of your degree requirements.
Your CPT application consists of three items:
- Your completed CPT-IS Form
- Note: where the form asks for your CPT-IS Supervisor’s Name please put “Dr. Ani Hsieh”
- Your CPT Proposal doc
- Note: This proposal document does not need to be lengthy, one page will suffice; however, it is critically important that the proposal document is well written and clearly states the purpose of the internship and how it contributes to your studies and overall career objectives. Make sure you clearly answer the following questions in the proposal:
- What are the tasks of this internship and why is the internship valuable as part of your study? You should try to relate the tasks to your overall career goals.
- What are the related courses in your plan of study that are relevant to the internship? It is important to explain why you think the internship expands on what you have learned in these courses.
- Note: This proposal document does not need to be lengthy, one page will suffice; however, it is critically important that the proposal document is well written and clearly states the purpose of the internship and how it contributes to your studies and overall career objectives. Make sure you clearly answer the following questions in the proposal:
- Offer Letter from your internship
- This offer letter must contain a start and end date and the location of your internship. If working remotely, the offer letter should state “virtual” or remote”. Offer letters must be on company letterhead and signed by your employer.
Send the Engineering application CPT Form, employer’s offer letter, and your proposal to robo-coord@seas.upenn.edu, all as one .pdf file (application form first) for final signature from the program chair. This packet will be returned to you once signed.
Please submit the final signed documents to the OAS CPT upload page. Please allow a minimum of 7 business days for Engineering’s review of all documents.
Please note that the CPT process can take up to two weeks for processing during the busiest times. Multiple offices and staff are reviewing your CPT at different stages. If all documents are in order sometimes it can take as little as five business days for processing. Please plan accordingly and give yourself at least a two week window prior to your start date to get all documents in and reviewed/approved on time.
For more information on SEAS CPT please refer to the student handbook. You can also find more detailed information about regulations and requirements on the ISSS website.