Research + Your ROBO Degree

Master’s Thesis (ROBO 5970)

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 5970 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 5970 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 5970 (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.