The Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design will offer a new Master of Science in Design with a concentration in robotics and autonomous systems beginning in the Fall of 2020. This one-year post-professional program aims to critically develop novel approaches to the design, manufacturing, construction, use and life-cycle of architecture through creative engagement with robotics, material systems, and design-computation.
Students will develop skills in advanced forms of robotic fabrication, simulation, and artificial intelligence, in order to develop methods for design that harness production or live adaptation as a creative opportunity. Operating predominantly through material prototyping and robotic fabrication, participants will critically assess the socio-political, ethical and theoretical dimensions of a recent societal shift towards algorithmic and autonomous technological dependence, and attempt to provoke alternative forms of dialogue with industry and culture that address our individual and collective engagement with the built environment.
The work of the program will be both highly speculative and physically manufactured. Students will develop, present, and exhibit robotically-manufactured architectural prototypes (part or whole) at the completion of the course.
The MSD-RAS program will enable graduates to:
Gain state of the art robotics, material fabrication, and design-computation qualifications.
Develop skills in advanced methods of fabrication, computation, robot programming and multi-modal sensing technologies, and their integration within innovative design methods.
Expand career opportunities and options to work in ambitious and diverse fields.
Impact the present and future trajectory of architecture through novel forms of production, practice, and entrepreneurship.
Operate at the forefront of industry research and development.