RoboMeshA: How an IEEE Team Built a Portable, All-in-One Robotics and AI Learning Platform

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Published: September 25, 2026

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Access to modern STEM education is often limited by a school's budget and physical infrastructure. While students may have the passion and intellectual curiosity for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the lack of dedicated laboratory facilities, expensive software licenses, and specialized hardware platforms can stall their hands-on learning. To bridge this gap, a multidisciplinary team from ITESO (Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara) in Mexico has developed an innovative solution: RoboMeshA.

Supported by the EPICS in IEEE initiative and funded by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, a 15-member team consisting of mechatronics engineering students, academic advisors, and local IEEE volunteers set out to design a portable, self-contained mobile laboratory. RoboMeshA is engineered to deliver a complete, high-impact robotics and artificial intelligence educational experience directly into classrooms, completely bypassing the need for pre-installed laboratory infrastructure.

Sustainability Robotics: How Barbara Mazzolai is Engineering the Future of Bioinspired, Biodegradable Machines

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Published: September 24, 2026

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In the traditional engineering landscape, robots are often conceived as rigid, metallic assemblies of gears, motors, and silicon chips designed to conquer or manipulate their surroundings. However, Dr. Barbara Mazzolai, Associate Director for Robotics at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa, is championing a paradigm shift. By fusing her academic foundations in biology with microsystems engineering, Mazzolai has spent her career looking to the natural world to revolutionize how we build, deploy, and eventually retire robotic systems.

Her pioneering work has led to the conceptualization of "sustainability robotics"—a framework that challenges embedded engineers, roboticists, and IoT developers to design machines that operate in harmony with nature and leave behind zero ecological footprint.

The Green Horizon of Automation: Inside Barbara Mazzolai’s Vision for Sustainability Robotics

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Published: September 23, 2026

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For decades, the design philosophy of classical robotics has relied heavily on rigid metallic frames, high-torque electromagnetic actuators, and complex, power-hungry control loops. While this architecture has proven highly successful in controlled factory settings, it often struggles when introduced to chaotic, unpredictable natural environments. Furthermore, as the deployment of autonomous systems, environmental monitors, and Internet of Things (IoT) nodes scales globally, engineers are facing a quiet crisis: the massive ecological footprint of electronic waste and non-biodegradable hardware.

At the forefront of addressing this challenge is Dr. Barbara Mazzolai, Associate Director for Robotics at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa and director of the Bioinspired Soft Robotics Laboratory. Throughout her career, Mazzolai has successfully integrated the principles of biology with advanced engineering, designing systems modeled after soft-bodied marine organisms, seed dispersion mechanisms, and subterranean plant roots. Now, she is advocating for a profound structural shift in the industry: the establishment of sustainability robotics.