This past semester, Oglethorpe students studied animals at Zoo Atlanta and built working robots inspired by what they saw. From alpacas to elephants, the course turned real-world animal behavior into blueprints for robotic design, blending biology, engineering, and a lot of hands-on creativity.
The course challenged students to design and build “bioinspired” robots鈥攎achines modeled after animals they observed during a field trip to Zoo Atlanta. These robots were built as scientific models to help answer real biological questions, deepening students鈥� understanding of the natural world while equipping them with in-demand technical skills.
鈥淭he most important part for me was for my students to understand and communicate how principles from biology can be translated into robotic design,鈥� says Assistant Professor of Physics Dr. Kelimar Diaz, who taught the course.
The process began with scientific observation. Students visited Atlanta’s most iconic zoo to study animal behavior and meet with Dr. Joseph Mendelson III, the zoo鈥檚 director of research. Mendelson鈥檚 work, which includes using robots to study biological systems, served as a direct inspiration for the course. For Oglethorpe students, the opportunity to engage with a nationally recognized research institution just minutes from campus was both academically rewarding and just plain fun. The visit helped students bridge the gap between theory and application as they selected an animal, studied its movement, and set out to build a robot that mimicked that motion with purpose.
Throughout the semester, students tackled everything from programming motors and sensors to 3D design and systems integration.
鈥淚 would say the most impactful thing or coolest thing done within this project is just understanding the mechanics that go behind robots, like the constant trial and error and learning how different systems integrate with one another.” says biology major Isaiah Thomas 鈥�25.
That iterative, hands-on process culminated in presentations at Oglethorpe鈥檚 annual Liberal Arts and Sciences Symposium鈥攁 daylong campus-wide celebration of academic work. There, students shared their research with peers, faculty and staff, gaining vital experience in articulating their discoveries and building their identities as academic experts.
For Christian Salazar-Rojo 鈥�26, an engineering dual-degree student, completing the robot was both a technical and emotional milestone. 鈥淭his was my first ever robot, and there were many factors that we didn’t account for when making it. But, once we got it working, it felt amazing,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he thing I learned from this is that the path is never straight. There are always unknown obstacles throughout this process.鈥�
While the course provided a strong foundation for students interested in robotics careers, like disaster recovery robots that slithered through rubble, or surgical bots that mimicked precise animal movements, it also taught universally relevant skills: rapid iteration, systems thinking and scientific communication.
Most importantly, it demonstrated that innovative, hands-on, STEM-centered work thrives at Oglethorpe鈥攑owered by intellectual curiosity, access to Atlanta鈥檚 world-class institutions, and a liberal arts foundation that prepared students to think across disciplines and design with purpose.
