BE$T JOB IN AMERICA? Systems Engingeering!

Every year Money Maganize names the 50 best jobs in America based on a variety of factors such as pay, lifestyle and demand. Guesss what this years' #1 job was?

Yep. It was Systems Engineering.

Check out the Article. They cite high demand, high pay, and the opportunity to manage creative solutions to high level problems.

Systems Engineer Stats
Median salary
(experienced) $87,100
Top pay $130,000
10-year job growth (2006-2016) 45%
Total jobs (current) 88,000
Online want ad growth (April 2009-August 2009) 22%
Personal satisfaction A
Job security B
Future growth B
Benefit to society C
Low stress C

Towers of Hanoi

Legend has it that somewhere in Hanoi, there is a temple in which a group of Buddhist monks have 64 rings on a set of pegs. They need to move the rings from one peg to another, but you can only move one ring at time and are not allowed to place a larger on on top of a smaller one. When they complete the task...the world will end!

Sounds boring though huh? That is where the robots come in! Robots are suited to dirty dull and dangerous tasks that humans would rather not do. Here is our Intro to Robotics lab. (oh, by the way, if you do the math, turns out if they move one ring per second, the world won't actually end for another few billion years so don't worry)


ps - What is up with the arcing?

Robot Road Report

( by Prof. Esposito)
I am currently at the Intelligent Robots ad Systems Conference in St. Louis. Here are some observations:

1. Everybody seems to be trying to buy a Vicon, motion tracking system. In case you don't know, this is a system that uses high speed IR cameras to track moving objects to within 1 mm accuracy and can compute position and orientation up to 1000 times/sec. Its like a really fast, really accurate indoor GPS systems. It is also used alot in the biomedical, video game and movie industries. Within 3 hours of arriving here at IROS, I met 3 colleagues from other institutions who were in the process of planing orders. Seems like we're practically trend setters. Prof. Bishop and I got the idea to buy one, way back in early 2008.

2. Hokuyo came out with a new scanning laser range finder that retains the slim form factor of the URG (about 2" X 2" X 2"). However this one gets both power and data through the USB connection, eliminating the need for a separate power supply. Oh yeah, it is half the price too! (1200 USD vs 2500)

3. I got the chance to meet Nao, the new small humanoid robot from Alderbaran Robotics. It is quite cool, and at 10,000 USD / unit it is no toy. So far their primary market is the RoboCup Universities that are participating in the humanoid league.

http://www.aldebaran-robotics.com/eng/Nao.php