Michigan Tech is Celebrating 101 Years of Robots with Various Events During October

Coined in 1920 the term “robot” is a newer term in language, and was first used in Czech playwright Karel Capek’s hit R.U.R., or Rossum’s Universal Robots. University of Michigan Science Historian and Professor, Howard Markel, has said the word comes from an old Slavic term, rabota, meaning forced labor. And rabota has cognates in German, Russian, and polish languages. Tomorrow, Michigan Tech is hosting their first Robots 101 event, in preparation of the theater presenting Rossum’s Univeral Robots is a couple of weeks. In the East Reading Room of MTU’s campus library, Chris Murray and Nick Johnson, from the University of Dundee, Scotland, will discuss their comic adaptation of the play Rossum’s Universal Robots.

“Taking the play, and making an illustrated novel version of the play. And so that’s our first event, and that’s happening Thursday (Sep. 29th). And then next week, we have a screen for a film called, After Yang. Which concerns an android that is the companion for a little girl and her family. And sort of what happens when the android companion stops working, and leaves this sort of hole in their lives. And they start thinking of what role the android had.” – Doctor Charles Wallace, Associate Professor or Computer Science

Stop by the East Reading Room tomorrow, at noon, tomorrow, to hear from Nick Johnson and Chris Murray. Michigan Tech is all about the robotics, with a number of similar events over the next couple of weeks, leading up to the Michigan Tech Theater’s performance of Rossum’s Universal Robots. Check out all of the events and find more information at robots101.mtu.edu/events. If you cant make it to tomorrow’s event, find a virtual zoom link on robots 101’s website. All of the events are free to attend, beside the performance at the Rozsa Center. Find ticket information for Rossum’s Universal Robots at rozsa.mtu.edu/tickets.

Tickets for R.U.R. at the Rozsa Center are $15 for adults, and $5 for kids.