Overview

The College of Computing and Informatics is offering a Master of Science degree in Robotics and Control Systems (MSRCS), which is a credit-hour-based graduate degree program designed to prepare students for academic and research careers in the emerging and vital field of Robotics. The new generation of governments and businesses are highly relying on technology to optimize their productivity and services. The usage of automated vehicles such as robots and drones has been increasing in the last few years to efficiently provide different automated services in various critical fields such as public safety, transportation, and utilities. For example, the government of the United Arab Emirates has announced that there are plans to use unmanned aerial drones to deliver official documents and packages to its citizens as part of efforts to upgrade government services. Robotics is an interdisciplinary specialization that deals with designing, constructing, and operating robotic systems. The MSRCS program is developed by the College of Computing and Informatics in collaboration with the College of Engineering. The MSRCS program accepts students with B.Sc. degrees from different specializations in the College of Computing and Informatics and the College of Engineering, like Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mechatronics and Robotics, or related fields. Therefore, the University of Sharjah is offering the MSRCS to meet the requirements of society, and to support the vision of the UAE government to transform to smart services. The MSRCS program brings together scientific areas that would otherwise be spread across various departments or separate colleges. The program will focus on preparing students to take a leading role in the research and development of future generations of integrated robotics technologies and systems. The academic aim of this program is to provide students with advanced knowledge and skills in robotics by providing courses in various fields, e.g., Robotics, Autonomous Systems, Control Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Sensors, Embedded Systems, and Computational Vision. The intent is also to prepare students to engage in independent and collaborative research in academic, governmental, and industrial contexts. During this educative process, students will participate in knowledge generation and improvement, research synthesis, and knowledge/technology transfer. The implementation of this program is consistent with the vision and mission of the University of Sharjah (UoS), which is to educate through the academic process, to further human discovery through research, and to enhance wellbeing through involvement with the community. The proposed MSRCS program will benefit the University of Sharjah in many ways by: Creating greater synergy between academia and the local/regional industry. Contributing to the expansion of UoS research activities. Bringing closer the IT industry in UAE and the region to UoS through expected collaboration on pressing IT problems affecting and directly related to the region. Bringing additional international recognition to the University. The MSRCS graduates will, therefore, be contributing to the needs of the UAE and the region for highly qualified individuals in the field of Robotics. It is anticipated that between 8 to 12 students will join the program in its first years of inception and with the expectation that the number will increase in subsequent years, the number of faculty will increase, and more resources and funding will be allocated to the department. At the graduate level, this program is expected to equip its graduates with advanced technical knowledge and skills including skills of leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship. A graduate from this program should be able to lead an enterprise’s effort in robotics automation planning, operation, management, and implementation. Should the graduate decide to continue in academia, this program will be a strong steppingstone towards advancements in research and scholarship. The core goal of the MSc degree in Robotics and Control Systems is twofold; firstly, enabling students by acquiring advanced knowledge in the different areas of the field of robotics, and secondly, empowering students with the ability to apply autonomous robotics techniques and methods in a variety of problems. Students are expected to solve problems of both a scientific and technological nature using state-of-the-art tools resulting from recent research.