NC State Professor's Autonomous Systems Research Inspired by Transformers

Sunday, July 9th, 2017 11:19AM CDT

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For some more upbeat news on your Sunday, check out this article available in NC State University's News Blog's "Research Matters" series. Written by Associate Professor Dr. Edgar Lobaton from their Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the article talks about how our favorite "Robots in Disguise" inspired him from a young age to pursue a career in machine learning:

Dr. Edgar Lobaton wrote:My passion for machine learning and autonomous systems started when I was a little kid.

I was in my first year of elementary student in Peru, waiting diligently every weekend in front of the TV in order to catch an episode of the Transformers animated series. Sitting on my parents’ couch, hearing the classic tune describing the robots as “more than meets the eye,” the same thought would keep going around and around in my head: “I’ve got to have one.”

Growing up in a third-world country, my parents could not afford to buy Transformers toys for me. As a resourceful kid, I did the next best thing: I decided to build my own. With the limited resources I had, I started to build my own robots. At age five, I started by drawing my first Transformers on a piece of paper, cutting them out with my bright red training scissors, and then folding legs and arms in order to convert them into little squares. Not the most useful Transformers, but it was a first attempt.

Seen here: Not quite what they're working on

Check out the full text of the article here to learn about some of his work that was inspired by Transformers. Insecticons, anyone? We hope you enjoy this unconventional news, and let us know by replying to this post if Transformers have inspired any of your life's work.

Oh yeah, by the way - Go Wolfpack!

Credit(s): NC State University, Dr. Edgar Lobaton