NEWS

The objective of this project is to establish New Mexico Tech’s first AI-enabled humanoid robotics research testbed through a structured undergraduate research and capstone framework supported by graduate student mentoring within the ARISE Lab. The project is designed to expand meaningful undergraduate research opportunities while building long-term research capacity in humanoid robotics, intelligent systems, and digital twin technologies. The proposed work directly supports undergraduate research by engaging students as primary contributors in system design, modeling, hardware implementation, and experimental validation. Rather than serving as assistants, undergraduate students will lead subsystem development within clearly defined research groups. This structure ensures that students experience the full research lifecycle: requirements definition, modeling, prototyping, testing, validation, and dissemination. 

This project involves two undergraduate students in a research-oriented activity with the goal of modernizing an existing high-throughput thin film fatigue testing system into a fully autonomous experimentation system at New Mexico Tech. The students will benefit from a research visit experience at Sandia National Laboratories and the development of Python-controlled workflows that leverage application programming interfaces to enable continuous fatigue testing operations without human intervention. The integration of state-of-the-art autonomous laboratory research into an academic learning environment and its translation into a new course on AI-driven experimentation bridges the gap between education and next-generation materials research. The workflows that are developed will also have the benefit of creating a template for additional experiment automation capabilities, thus benefiting the PI’s research and the institution’s infrastructure.

New Mexico undergraduate students typically encounter integrated circuit (IC) design only in their senior year, which delays essential skill development and limits access to research and internships just when the semiconductor industry demand is accelerating in our region. To address this, the PI proposes a two-week, intensive summer Course–based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) that immerses sophomore and junior students in the full concept-to-manufacturing chip design flow. The program will spark early interest, build practical competencies, and strengthen the local semiconductor workforce pipeline by preparing New Mexico students for upper-division research and internships sooner.