It wasn’t an email. It wasn’t a memo. It wasn’t a strategic plan.
It was a handwritten note: three names at the top, a single question in the middle, and a quiet challenge at the end. Written in 1999, that note helped launch Robofest and reshaped how Lawrence Technological University inspires young innovators around the world.
On October 27, 1999, Chan-Jin “CJ” Chung, PhD, was a still new LTU faculty member, refining an unconventional idea: a pre-college “non-remote-controlled” robotics competition that valued creativity as much as technical precision. The idea using Lego robots was promising, but unproven.
Then the note arrived.
Addressed to LTU’s then Provost Lewis Walker, LTU longtime communicator Bruce Annett, and Chung, it came from LTU President Charles M. Chambers. Chambers didn’t ask whether the idea would work. He asked: “What can we do to promote this? That article should be about us and LTU. What ideas do we have to promote our work.”
For Chung, the message was unmistakable. This wasn’t tentative approval. It was a belief and an invitation to move forward.
More than two decades later, Chung is a Professor of Computer Science, Director of the CS AI & Robotics Lab, and the founder of Robofest, now an internationally recognized robotics competition that has inspired nearly 40,000 students worldwide. But its origin traces back to that moment when leadership asked how, not why.
“When leadership asks how, instead of why, it changes what’s possible,” Chung said. “That note gave the idea a future.”
Before coming to the United States, Chung was already working at the forefront of technological change. As a research scientist at ETRI in South Korea, he contributed to telecommunication switching systems that evolved into the world’s first commercialized 2G CDMA networks, which is the foundation for today’s smartphones and 5G connectivity.
It was complex, systems-level engineering with global reach. Yet Chung became increasingly drawn to a different challenge: how intelligence evolves, and how people learn to create within complex systems.
After earning his PhD in Computer Science from Wayne State University, Chung focused his research on self-adaptive artificial intelligence inspired by cultural evolution — AI systems that improve through experience (generalized knowledge representation), variation, selection mechanism and feedback. That mindset would later shape both his research and his approach to education.
At LTU, Chung saw an opportunity to rethink how young people encounter engineering. Too often, robotics competitions rewarded rule-following over originality. Chung imagined something different: a holistic platform where engineering met science, technology, art, and math where storytelling mattered, and where students were encouraged to design solutions in their own voice.
That vision became Robofest.
What began as a local experiment grew into a global movement emphasizing autonomous robotics, teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving. Students were building more than robots. They were building confidence, agency, and identity.
Robofest later expanded into programs such as Robotics Science Exhibition, RoboArts, RoboParade, MathDance, RoboMED, Unknown Mission Challenge, BottleSumo and the Vision Centric Challenge, reinforcing Chung’s belief that innovation thrives at the intersection of disciplines.
“Robofest was never about teaching students to follow instructions,” Chung said. “It was about giving them permission to think, create, and trust their own ideas and creativity.”
Today, Chung’s work spans AI, deep learning, evolutionary computation, computer vision, self-driving vehicle algorithms, and agentic AI. Through projects funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Army GVSC, and industry partners, he leads students in developing real-world autonomous systems, including street-legal self-driving electric vehicles tested on campus.
He mentors student teams competing in Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition and has mentored RoboCup, the World Robot Olympiad, and the DARPA Urban Challenge, helping students translate theory into practice, and curiosity into careers.
For Chung, the future of AI and robotics has never been just about faster systems or smarter machines. It has always been about people, especially young people discovering what they are capable of building.
“Technology will keep changing,” Chung said. “What matters is whether we help students believe they belong in that future, and they have something original to contribute.”
Looking back, he sees Robofest as a mindset rooted in trust, creativity, and the willingness to let ideas grow before they are fully formed.
“That’s what we try to give students the confidence to try, to fail, to learn, and to build something that didn’t exist before,” he said.
Chung’s work has been recognized with honors, including the IEEE-USA Citation of Honor, Mary E. and Richard E. Marburger Distinguished Achievement Award, and Hsu Family Distinguished Award in Creativity.
Chung talks about students who never thought engineering was “for them” until they built something that worked. Students who discovered creativity belong in computation. Students who learned to trust their ideas.
And he talks about that hand-written note.
Because in many ways, Robofest began with a university willing to invest trust before results.
More than 20 years later, that belief shapes lives — one student, one robot, one idea at a time.
Lawrence Technological University is one of only 13 independent, technological, comprehensive doctoral universities in the United States. Located in Southfield, Mich., LTU was founded in 1932, and offers more than 100 programs through its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business and Information Technology, Engineering, and Health Sciences, as well as Specs@LTU, which offers communication training programs of the former Specs Howard School, and LTU’s growing Center for Professional Development. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 11 percent of universities for alumni salaries. Forbes and The Wall Street Journal rank LTU among the nation’s top 10 percent. U.S. News and World Report lists it in the top tier of best in the Midwest colleges. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 107-acre campus include more than 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.
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