🚀 go-pugleaf

In message <6aqm67$f1$1@heliodor.xara.net>
          "WEBSpinner" <WEBSpinner@potter01.globalnet.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi!
> 
> I am 14 years old and I am seriously considering a career in robotics. I was
> wondering if anyone can tell me  what qualifications / courses / degrees
> would be useful in this field?

If you can learn to beat metal, shape wood and craft with solder at school,
do so. IE, take GCSE's in relevant subjects. Try and pick up technical
drawing, it'll help when you try and get others to build stuff.

You'll need good GCSE maths for later on; try and remember to get physics, as
I still find myself using some of it... 

Electronics can and should be acquired for fun; in fact, that's the best way
to do it. Persuade stup^H^H^H^H wealthy doting relatives to give you a
150-in-1 type experimenting kit, and work through it. Get the
sci.electronics.repair FAQ, pick up broken electronic stuff, and have a go at
repairing it. [Read the safety notes!] [Read them again!]

Mechanical design comes from building stuff: hence the metalworking and
woodworking. Plus, repairing tape-decks, walkmans and so forth will give you
a deep grasp of the stuff. What you can't repair can be made into BEAM
robots...

Programming: never let anyone teach you programming. Acquire code and read
it. Write your own. Begin a stupidly ambitious programming project, throw it
away three or four times. Always buy _cheap_ _second-hand_ academic computer
science books on subjects that interest you: you'll get to read and re-read
them, gradually coming to grok what they're talking about.

For A-levels, people will give you much more respect when applying to
technical courses if you've got maths and physics. You might want to avoid
doing a 3rd tech subject at A-level, to get a little perspective. Or you
might do business studies... Hell, study english. You'll get to mix with a
completely different group of people, and the Universities will be impressed
with your broad base of learning.

As to a degree, well, remember the Fundamental Principle of Tertiary
Education:

   A degree is the subject you study for a qualification; 
   your life is what you do during and after.

Ideally, when choosing a degree course, look at the 2nd and 3rd year
syllabus: if it contains anything that's of interest _now_ you'll do well at
the degree, tho' you might be bored doing the first year. If you've never
heard of any of it, you probably don't want to do that course...

If in doubt, do something that looks like you'll enjoy it for your degree.
_Don't_ do a degree course just because you want to get a job doing that.

Try _really hard_ not to get caught between two departments at University.
Many `interdisciplinary' courses, that sound real hot to the roboticist, are
actually a bunch of bedraggled students being buck-passed between two
departments...

Postgraduate? Take a 1-year computer science course: Cambridge does a good
one (IMHO). Don't do CS for a degree, unless you like mainframe assembler. Do
it in one year, as Needham and Wheeler intended you to. 

PhD? Too early to plan yet.

General tips:

  Build stuff. Document it. Put it on your web site. Nothing looks better
than saying 'and i did this.. and this.. and this...': and conviction and
experience can always patch up for the dodgy grades you got because you were
`busy' that year.

  Hunt down people working in the field, and go and visit them. (Ask first!)
They'll often happily show you the state of the art, and be impressed by the
fact you took the time to come see _them_. Plus, they'll be able to tell you
things you could never find out otherwise... ("Oh, we're looking for people
for our new integrated computer science and mechancal engineering course?")

  Have fun. Only do something you don't want to do because you _really_ need
it to do something else that you definitely want to do. 

  Think twice about doing a degree: if you drop out badly the first time,
you've got to wait till you're 25 before you get another go. Usually. 

Good luck lad: hold tight, and think of Lancashire HotPot, as someone else
might say.

hth
cheers
Rich.

-- 
Rich Walker: rw@shadow.org.uk (Shadow Robot Project)
http://www.shadow.org.uk        251 Liverpool Road
+44(0)171 700 2487                London  N1 1PX