Undergraduate Focus Area: Human-Robot Interaction

The Human-Robot Interaction Focus Area in the Computer Science Major
Department of Computer Science
Tufts University
Last updated by Matthias Scheutz on June 5, 2024

Overview

The crux of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is to understand how humans can naturally and effectively interact with different types of robots in different types of tasks. The purpose of this focus area is to provide you with breadth and depth in the broad area of human-robot interaction with a strong technical foundation in computer science. This focus area applies equally well for Arts and Sciences (A&S) and School of Engineering (SoE) students.

The Computer Science Core

1. Introduction to Computer Science (CS 11)
2. Data Structures (CS 15)
3. Machine Structure & Assembly Language Programming (CS 40)
4. Discrete Mathematics (CS 61)
5. Programming Languages (CS 105)
6. Algorithms (CS 160)
7. Theory of Computation (CS 170)

The HRI Core

1. Human-Robot Interaction (CS 133)
2. Probabilistic Robotics (CS 141)
3. Ethics in AI, Robotics, and HRI (CS 139)
4. The HRI Capstone

HRI Electives

Pick at least three courses from the list below:

• Artificial Intelligence (CS 131)
• Machine Learning (CS 135)
• Autonomous Intelligent Robots (CS 50)
• Developmental Robotics (CS 150-XX)
• Human-Computer Interaction (CS 171)
• Deep Neural Networks (CS 137)
• Natural Language Processing (CS 150)
• Reinforcement Learning (CS 138)
• Computational Models in Cognitive Science (CS 134)
• Computer Vision (CS 150-XX)

Capstone

To be successful in HRI in the future (in academia and industry alike), you will need practical hands-on experience with robots and experimental evaluations of human-robot interactions in different task settings. You can fulfill the capstone de facto requirement in our HRI focus area by either doing a year long senior capstone project via CS 97 and CS 98 or doing a thesis in HRI via CS 197.