What inspires you? - University of South Carolina Upstate

Inspiration is hard to ignore when you come face-tofacewith it every day. With an average class size of25–30 students, and a student-faculty ratio of18 to 1, your USC Upstate story will be fundamentallyshaped by your inspiring, continuous, one-on-oneinteractions with professors and classmates.“USC Upstate allows me to balance myefforts in both teaching and research,” saysAssociate Professor of Computer Scienceand Director of Research Support,Dr. Sebastian van Delden. In additionto mentoring them in the classroom, Dr.van Delden routinely opens up excitingnew possibilities for USC Upstate studentsthrough his research into visual and voiceguided robotic systems, a field in whichhe has published numerous works. “It’sexciting to see such a steady increase inresearch initiatives across our campus,” heexplains. “We’ve helped fund 30 differentprojects this academic year alone, manyof which included undergraduate researchassistants. I, myself, have had manystudents work with me in the robotics laband co-author articles for peer-reviewedconferences and publications.”Dr. van Delden has also been instrumentalin organizing summer roboticscamps that open up the cutting-edgeUSC Upstate Robotics Lab to youngchildren. “They are a lot of fun,” hesays. “We’ve had ten-year-oldsoperating and programming ourStäubli robotic arms. The Upstateand the country as a whole needsmore kids interested in science andtechnology, and these are the kindsof experiences that can spark theirpassion from an early age.”Our faculty members inspire USC Upstate students bothwithin and beyond the classroom. Last year, for example,faculty across our campus engaged more than 1,500students in contributing approximately 18,000 hours ofservice, impacting the lives of more than 8,000 children,among others.