The Robotics Community

By Aly Abdalla

Introduction
Robotics has been, over the past decade, a field that has gained a lot of interest. It is a
field that everyone looks into. Today, it can be seen how robots are slowly taking over the
world, without people knowing about it. People might misunderstand the true meaning of a
robot or a technology. Robotics is not necessarily just related to literal robots, it can be related
to everyday devices such as laptops and mobile phones. This is what shows how much of a
broad of a field robotics is, which explains why Texas A&M in Qatar has shown their interest
into that field. Texas A&M in Qatar is currently hosting a robotics competition, in which robot
enthusiasts are welcome to join. Here is where ‘The Robotics Community’ was created.

The Robotics community is a relatively small community that holds around 20 members.
Most of these members are students, while having a small number of proffesors and TA’s. Of
these students, about 90% are freshmen. This community is known in the university for their
participation in the robotics competition hosted by the university. Joining this community was
highly competitive as a lot of people applied while only 20 were accepted.

I have personally chosen this community for my research as it was and still is one of my
highly prioritized goals, to join the university’s robotics team. Eversince highschool, I have been
a robotics enthusiast and I would always take any given chance to join a robotics related
competition. As it can be expected, I have applied to join The Robotics Community as soon as
the applications were open, and I was successfully chosen to be part of the team. It is a true
honor for me to be in such a hard working community, which always works in order to be the
best out of the best. This is what pushed me into centering my research on a specific question, “
How can someone be a valuable member of the robotics community?”. To have this question
properly answered, I have prepared an online survey that was sent to the members of the
community, in addition to having an interview with one of the responsible team in the
community.

Methods
During my first semester at TAMUQ, I had a chance to join the robotics competition
team. This pushed me forward into having a research on that certain community as it interests
me the most. I had prepared my survey through google forms and had it sent out to my fellow
colleagues of this community through our WhatsApp group.
 My survey questions were based and focused on getting to know the different aspects
of the members in this community. Some of them focused on how they looked onto the
competition itself, while others focused on knowing whether the member was completely
committed to this community or not. These questions were all aiming to gather information
and know exactly how one can be a valuable member in the Robotics Community. The survey
questions were:

- Would you prioritize robotics sessions over spending free time with your friends?
- Before this competition, have you ever joined a robotics competition?
- What made you apply to join this robotics competition?
- Would you join any robotics competitions in the future?
- What is one thing you enjoyed during the sessions? and what is one new thing you learned?
-
To know more about being a valuable member of this community, I was pleased to
interview my fellow colleague, David, who is indeed one of the most important members of this
community, and the most committed as well. The interview was conducted through text using
WhatsApp, as we both could not make it into a face to face meeting. Moving into the interview,
the questions were focused on his point of view of this robotics competition, and his interests
in it. The three interview questions were:

- Why did you choose Engineering to be your major?

- What was the main reason you joined robotics?
- What made you attend every session of these robotics classes?

Results

Survey Results:
After conducting the survey and distributing it online, through the whatsapp group of
the community, we have received multiple answers towards our main objective. These
questions were put in order to evaluate each member of the community (anonymously). The
evaluation is through the detection of the answers that would logically lead to characterizing a
valuable member of the robotics community. First of all, about 30% only of the members are
willing to sacrifice some time with their friends in order to attend a robotics session. This gives
us the first characteristic, which is determination and consistency towards the love of robots
and robotics. Prioritizing robotics sessions over some free time spent with your friends is a true
sign of determination and a true and honest characteristic of a valuable and important member
to the community.

Figure 1: Survey Answers to the question "Would you prioritize robotics sessions over spending free time with your friends?"

Secondly, we can see through the survey that half the community were already involved
in a robotics competition throughout the past years. This serves as an important proof that
these members are deeply interested in this field. It was recorded that 50% had joined robotics
competitions in their past years. This is another step forward taking onto indicating the
characteristics of a valuable member of the robotics community.

Figure 2: Survey Answers to the question "have you ever joined a robotics competition before?"
 Another survey question included the reason behind the members applying to join this
community. It was obvious a lot have joined to gain experience, but what was fascinating is that
a couple of people joined aiming to gain knowledge rather than just experience, and some
others even joined for their connection to robotics. Attached below is a figure that shows all the
words that were mentioned in their responses.

Figure 3: Word cloud showing the different words mentioned in

the survey responses.

Interview Results:
- Why did you choose Engineering to be your major?
 I chose engineering mainly due to my interests in cars, I believe that the industry could
be where I will eventually work in, and engineering bodes well with my vision.
- What was the main reason you joined robotics?
 I joined robotics as I understood that this is an opportunity for me to learn through
hands-on processes, that the construction processes of the robots could translate for
my later education.
- What made you attend every session of these robotics classes?
 I attended the sessions as I wanted to learn to know how things worked and why they
do a certain function, or why its built in that particular order.
Conclusion
After conducting my survey to all the members of the community and interviewing a
potential valuable member, results can be used to make a proper analysis and to answer my
main research question. Through the survey, it can be interpreted that only a small percentage
of the members are actually committed to this community, which gives our first characteristic
to the valuable member, commitment. Then, the survey had asked if the members are willing
to join another competition in the future, where it gives us the second characteristic of a
valuable member of the robotics community, which is dedication. Last but not least, the
interview conducted with my fellow colleague, David, has showed me how dedicated and
determined he was, both in the field of engineering and in the field of robotics.
All in all, a valuable member of the robotics community is a member that is committed,
determined, and dedicated to continue in this path. I believe that all members are crucial to
have such a community, however not all members are as valuable. It is important to
differentiate between valuable members and regular members, as valuable members have the
biggest effect on the community.

Resources

- DESIREE ROSA GOMEZ CARDOSA, "Personal and social robots in education"(2018),

https://blogs.uoc.edu/elearning-innovation-center/personal-and-social-robots/

- BROOKS, R. A. “New Approaches to Robotics.” Science 253, no. 5025 (September 13,
1991): 1227–32. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?
repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=9e1ef9e0a9de1d1c5e36d1a4c735da2fa313c563.
- Koren, Y, and Spyros G Tzafestas. “Robotics for Engineers.” IEEE Transactions on
Systems, Man, and Cybernetics 16, no. 4 (January 1, 1986).
https://doi.org/10.1109/tsmc.1986.289270.
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