State Senator Ed Kennedy was happy to tour the UMass-Lowell New England Robotic Validation and Experimentation (NERVE) Center at 110 Canal Street in Lowell on Monday, February 13 as the NERVE Center celebrated its tenth anniversary.
The UMass-Lowell NERVE Center is an interdisciplinary robotics testing, research and training facility that evaluates robotic capabilities, human performance, and human-robot interaction. The mission of the NERVE Center is to improve the development of robotic systems.
The Massachusetts State Legislature has funded a state voucher program that gives Massachusetts-based small and medium sized businesses access to UMass-Lowell’s leading-edge research facilities at 70% off the standard rates. Eleven professionally-staffed core research facilities (CRF), with technologies including materials characterization, flow cytometry, DNA sequencing, NMR, robotics testing, and a clean room nanofabrication facility are available for use with the voucher program.
Associate NERVE Center Director Adam Norton, NERVE Center Director Holly Yanco, State Senator Ed Kennedy, and UMass-Lowell Chancellor Julie Chen. 
State Senator Ed Kennedy playing with Spot the robot dog from Boston Dynamics. 
Robotics Lab Manager Jordan Allspaw describes some of the robot’s capabilities to State Senator Ed Kennedy. 
State Senator Ed Kennedy met up with UMass-Lowell Associate Vice Chancellor Arlene Parquette during the NERVE Center tour. They were both part of the Sister-City Delegation that travelled to Kalamata, Greece last September. 
Robotics Engineer Brian Flynn describes some of the research at the NERVE Center to State Senator Ed Kennedy as UMass-Lowell Community Relations Director Patricia Coffey and UMass-Lowell Director of Government and Community Relations D.J. Corcoran look on. 
“Robot Dogs” were a big hit during the NERVE Center tour.