Meet Ben Finio, Ph.D., Robotics Engineer at Science Buddies

My Ph.D. is in robotics—micro robotics, if we want to get specific. My research in graduate school was on building tiny little robotic bees. My undergraduate degree was in mechanical engineering, but robotics is a very interdisciplinary field, usually a mix of mechanical/electrical engineering and computer science.

As a kid I always loved building things (LEGO and K'Nex were my favorite toys), math and science were always my favorite subjects, I loved going to science museums, and I also took drafting and computer programming classes in high school, so I was naturally drawn towards engineering in college. I had no idea that I wanted to get into robotics, though. I wasn't on a high school robotics team or anything like that. I applied to graduate programs in robotics, alternative energy, and aerospace programs because I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. I ultimately wound up choosing robotics.

My school district only had science fairs at the middle school level, not high school. I did a couple of projects on "what kind of mold/bacteria grow on rotting food"— basically leaving food in Petri dishes or Tupperware containers and checking back in a few weeks to see what grew on them. In hindsight, this is funny because I wound up liking physics much more than biology/life sciences. Now I prefer machines and am grossed out by things like rotting food!

For engineering in general, I'd say it's having the ability to create something totally new, something that nobody else in the world has built before. That's really cool. For robotics specifically, having gained the skills and knowledge to see some problem and think, "Hmm, could I build a machine to do that..." is really fun. We are surrounded by so many mechanical and electrical devices every day, and I really like learning to understand how they work instead of just taking them for granted.

When I was a graduate student, I used to give presentations about robots at schools and science museums. Kids, in particular, always loved the "soft robots:—robots made from squishy, rubbery materials instead of hard materials like metals and plastics. Parents and teachers always asked if there was any way students could actually make the robots. Eventually, we were able to take this process, which used to require a lot of expensive laboratory equipment, and turn it into something you can do in an elementary school classroom with much cheaper supplies. Taking that process out of the lab, putting it into the hands of kids, and seeing the looks on their faces when they built their own working air-powered soft robots was super exciting and rewarding. (Note: This student project is an evolution of Ben's early work with soft robots.)

I think, unfortunately, since there are so many movies with killer robots, people get the impression that robots are bad or evil, always out to take over the world or eliminate humanity. Most people working on robots are not mad scientists out for world domination. They're trying to figure out how to use robots to help people and make the world a better place.

I think another misconception, and I sort of had this when I started grad school, is that it's all fun and games, instant gratification, and playing with these cool working robots as they do fun stuff. In the movies, you see this in the "build montage," where they play cool music and show a few clips of Iron Man building his suit, and then the rest of the movie is him flying around blasting stuff. But for every one-minute YouTube video you watch of a robot dancing or doing jumping jacks, there are hours and hours of work behind it, including lots of times when the robot didn't work and broke, fell over, short-circuited, etc. You aren't going to watch an eight-hour video of someone hunched over a lab bench. The end results can still be really rewarding, but you have to be prepared to put in the work—way more than gets shown in the movies!

My most recent favorite is definitely the automatic dog door project, which was probably the first one I built to solve a true household need of mine—we couldn't get our dog to stop eating our cat's poop. Like I mentioned above, I thought, "Can I build something to solve this?" I won't explain it all here. You're better off watching the video.

Some of my other favorites include the Arduino underwater ROV and RC boat projects. I love being outside, and I live in an area with tons of lakes/waterfalls. Developing these projects gave me an excuse to head out to the lakes/waterfalls for filming and testing. It's hard to pick favorites otherwise. We have a whole suite of robotics projects, ranging from very simple robots like Artbot and Bristlebot to our more advanced Bluebot projects, because we want to have something for all students, regardless of their age or experience level. I've also done a lot of non-robotics projects, fun, colorful things like lemon volcanoes and elephant toothpaste. Those are always fun just to switch things up. I also love doing our annual engineering challenge, especially when it's a super simple project just using paper and tape. Again, it's hard to pick a favorite!

That's a tough one...probably Bill Nye because he's so passionate about science education and has really dedicated his life to it. Mark Rober would be a tie or a close second because he's by far the most popular engineering YouTuber, and I love making YouTube videos. As a side note, Bill and Mark are both mechanical engineers!

Definitely The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. (Apparently, Tolkien always intended it as a single volume, even though it's sometimes referred to as a trilogy, so it counts as one book!) I read it for the first time when I was ten and have re-read it several times since. I'm totally amazed by his ability to meticulously craft such a detailed fantasy world and suck you into it.

I love woodworking and building non-robotic things, including a tree house, an indoor climbing wall, an Elsa ice castle, and a LEGO table for my kids. When I'm not building stuff, I love just being outside. I live in an area with lots of lakes and waterfalls, so hiking, kayaking, biking, anything like that, or even just doing yard work on a nice day. When the weather is lousy, I've gotten into indoor rock climbing with my kids (although I'm not very good at it, and my daughter will probably be better than me pretty soon).

As a robotics engineer always dealing with very concrete things that you can see and feel, I always have a lot of respect for the physicists who are trying to figure out the universe at scales (either very tiny or very large) that are hard for us to comprehend as humans. Black holes, the Big Bang, all that stuff. So, probably some astrophysics-related quote about the universe. I just don't know which one!

First off, don't worry if you haven't gotten into robotics yet. Remember that I didn't even start work in robotics until graduate school. You have plenty of time to figure it out, and a degree in something like mechanical engineering is very versatile—you can switch fields later. The fact that you're even reading this and thinking about it now means you're giving it more thought than I did at your age.

If you are interested in robotics now, start by talking to your parents/teachers and finding out what's available to you. There are lots of expensive robotic kits and toys you can buy, but you don't necessarily need to start out by spending a lot of money. There are lots of free websites where you can start to learn computer programming. Your local library or makerspace might have resources available or a class you can take. You can check if your school has a robotics club. You can also go the good old-fashioned route of taking things apart to see how they work (although you might want to check out a thrift store or recycling center for old/broken appliances—your parents might get mad if you start taking apart random things in the house). Ultimately, don't worry too much and feel like you need to teach yourself to code and go to robotics competitions and design your own robot and overload yourself—remember to take time to enjoy other things, too! Find something that's available to you and that you enjoy. Use that to get started, and go from there.