Achievement

An IGERT Teaching Laboratory experiment became the cover article in the journal Nature and finalist for Best Paper at an international robotics meeting. The CiBER IGERT discovery-based learning lab continues to embody the core philosophy of interdisciplinary integration. Teams of biologists and engineers work side-by-side, making original discoveries with state-of-the-art research equipment. As one trainee declared, “I was able to interact and work with students from EECS, IB, BioE, and ME. As a group, we were limited only by our imagination in developing new experiments … This experience was noteworthy because we got carried away in the momentum of our creativity… This experience is exemplary of interdisciplinary research.” In addition to formal assessment, validation of our approach came in the form of an article published in the journal Nature on leaping lizards balancing with their tails and a bio-inspired, tailed robot that was recognized at an international robotics meeting.