Famed college to offer first robotics degree.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: SECURITY BEAT: Homeland Defense Briefs

WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, one of the first engineering and technology universities in the nation, helped give birth to the space age. It now intends to be the first to offer a bachelor's degree in robotic engineering.

The private university located in Massachusetts, and founded in 1865, will offer the degree beginning this fall.

"Robotics is one of the fastest growing areas of technology and has the potential to change many aspects of our world," said Carol Simpson, the school's provost and senior vice president. She said the program is designed to foster a "new breed of engineer."

The increasing demand for robots in the homeland security and defense sectors, as well as health care and consumer markets, prompted the school to add the major.

WPI helped usher in the space age through its most famed undergraduate, Robert Goddard, the father of modern rocketry. He later taught at the college and used its labs to develop his first prototypes.

The institute plans to...