Which Specialization Should I Choose for a Career in Robotics?

[Goldenratio]

Hi,
I am 1st year frosh currently enrolled in engineering science program at University of Toronto.
I was always fascinated by robots, and when I joined high school's robotics team and worked as a core executive member, that was pretty much the happiest time of my life.

Anyways, I want to know which education path I should take in order for me to become decent 'mechatronics' engineer.

Currently, in our program we get to choose our specializations in 3rd year. They include, aerospace, biomedical, electrical/computer, physics, nanotechnology, infrastructure, and energy systems. I was thinking of going to electrical/computer since they seem to be closest to robotics itself. However, I heard that aerospace option will allow me to do robotics as well. Which option do you think is better?

Also, I was thinking of doing masters degree in robotics related engineering. They seem to range from mechanical, systems, and electrical/computer engineering. What kind of engineering should I apply for at that time?

Any reply will be appreciated.

 

[n!kofeyn]

I guess out of that list I personally would choose electrical/computer engineering. Mechanical engineering is a very good choice also, but you don't have that listed up there. Even physics could help. For instance a course in mechanics would be crucial and even solid-state physics might be good too. Robotics sort of combines a lot of engineering together, since you need mathematics/mechanics to help describe configuration spaces, electrical engineering for controls and electronics, computer engineering for hardware/software communication, computer science for algorithms and AI, physics for material science, etc. I definitely am not knowledgeable in robotics, but I was interested in them at a time. This is just general advice. Be sure you get others advice, and hopefully an expert in robotics will descend upon this thread.

Does your school have a robotics team or group of researchers? Go talk to somewhere involved in robotics at your school. Contact a graduate program in robotics.