University of Pennsylvania
In 1740, George Whitefield a known evangelist of his time, together with some followers, began to construct a large school building at Fourth and Arch Streets in Philadelphia. The building was created as a charity school intended for the children of the workers in Philadelphia, and at the same as a house of worship for his followers. That year was marked as the University’s founding day, when foundations were laid and the walls of the “new building” began to erect, but because of the high cost the project was stopped for a decade.
Nine years later, Benjamin Franklin’s Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth was disseminated among Philadelphia’s important citizens, who organized 24 trustees to form an institution of higher education, which Franklin headed. Here, Franklin and the board bought the unfinished building and took responsibility for its educational trust. In 1751, the school opened its doors to the children of the common masses and rich alike. The school was dubbed then as the Academy and Charitable School in the Province of Pennsylvania.
In 1755, the school got a collegiate charter and opened the first medical school in the American colony in 1765. In 1779, the school was formally christened as a University; the first American institution to have such recognition. In 1802, the institution began to expand to a new campus located at Ninth Street between Market and Chestnut streets. In coming years, the school outgrew its existing location, and in 1872 the board decided to build a new campus in West Philadelphia.
Now, 250 years later, UPenn continues to accomplish excellence in research and education. Among its notable accomplishments includes creating the world’s first electronic, large scale, general-purpose digital computer, called the ENIAC.
UPenn takes pride in its location, having 12 schools in its compact and urbanized campus, making it truly conducive for interdisciplinary teaching and research. And among these schools is its School of Engineering & Applied Science, where it boasts of its Masters Program in Robotics.
This graduate school’s program is being administered by the University’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception Laboratory, or GRASP.
The program is being recognized as one of the top premier research centers in the country today. As a multi-disciplinary, the program gives a good foundation for everything aspiring robotic students need to know and exposes them to modern and future scientific and technological problems.
It also provides them with an ideal foundation for artificial intelligence, computer vision, control systems, dynamics up to machine learning and design, programming and prototyping of robotic systems. With the integration of this program, linking research and education, it allows the school to educate the engineering leaders of the future.
