Game design student scores co-op promotion at AI robotics firm

Game design and development (GDD) students do far more than just create games. They're developing dynamic, interactive experiences that will impact the future of various industries. Nic Drouillet, a GDD BS student in RIT’s school of interactive games and media, has been showcasing the versatility of his major during his double block co-op at Diligent Robotics.

A leading company in the physical AI and service robotics space, Diligent Robotics is focused on reducing the administrative and logistical burden on healthcare workers through the implementation of AI-powered robot assistants. These robotic assistants, named Moxi, are already present in over 25 hospitals nationwide, and students like Nic have been helping to improve their capabilities.

Moxi is powered through a combination of computer vision, autonomous navigation, motion planning, mobile manipulation, human-aware navigation, and AI-based perception and workflow learning. This technology allows Moxi to safely operate in dynamic hospital environments where hallway layouts change throughout the day. As such, working on Moxi requires an understanding of user experience design, troubleshooting, and software functionality, all skills developed by Drouillet as part of his GDD studies.

The deep technical knowledge Nic displayed, combined with his hard work on Moxi, led Diligent Robotics to promote him to Lead Clinical Robot Associate II. As part of the promotion, he was put in charge of a small team of technicians. The company also flew him to their headquarters in Austin, Texas, for training, which allowed Nic to view Moxi 2.0 during its prototype phase.

“Working at Diligent has been such an amazing experience,” remarks Nic. “I’m so lucky to see the impact of our work every day and how much Moxi has evolved in the past 3 years. What stands out most is how passionate everyone at the company is about what we do. No matter your role or level of experience, people are always eager to share their knowledge, collaborate, and help each other grow. That culture makes Diligent a very rewarding place to work.

Nic's experience at Diligent Robotics is a prime example of the innovation happening at the crossroads of robotics, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, computer vision, and healthcare technology. Furthermore, it underscores how a degree in game design equips graduates with versatile, problem-solving skills that reach far beyond the gaming industry.