This article was originally published on Davidson College’s blog by Jay Pfeifer. You can read the original piece here.
A new partnership will give Davidson College graduates an opportunity to expand the frontiers of robotics and artificial intelligence.
The Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Davidson College and Lucid Bots Inc. will partner to establish structured, paid pathways connecting Davidson students with Lucid Bots’ robotics testing and development.
Lucid Bots is the leading platform for autonomous drones and robots for exterior cleaning in the United States. It was founded in 2018 while founder and CEO Andrew Ashur ’19 was a student at Davidson College. Ashur and his co-founders wrote the business plan and built prototypes at the Hurt Hub before graduating in 2019.
The parties will create the Davidson Innovation Fellows Program, a 12-month fellowship for recent Davidson graduates that may be extended for up to five years. Lucid Bots expects to host up to four Davidson Innovation Fellows annually, providing immersive, applied experience across robotics testing, engineering, software development, data analysis, operations and customer operations.
“Establishing the Davidson Innovation Fellows is a true ‘full-circle’ moment as we work with Andrew and his team who were the first company to launch at the Hurt Hub,” said Liz Brigham, W. Spencer Mitchem ’59 Executive Director at the Hurt Hub at Davidson College. “The program creates a clear pathway for Davidson graduates to apply rigorous liberal arts thinking to real-world robotics challenges, while strengthening workforce development connections in North Carolina.”
The agreement also establishes a priority pipeline for Davidson College internships and high-impact experiential learning opportunities at Lucid Bots, expanding options for students seeking hands-on work in frontier technology and related fields. In partnership with the Matthews Center for Career Development, the opportunities are currently live on Handshake for students to apply. The initiative also outlines new opportunities for faculty research and engagement, including access to Lucid Bots’ private partners and research collaborators in areas of mutual interest.
“Lucid Bots started as an idea on a dorm room couch at Davidson College. We wouldn’t exist without the support of the college, the Hurt Hub, and the local community”, said Andrew Ashur, founder and CEO of Lucid Bots. “This partnership gives Davidson graduates direct exposure to a massive and growing market in robotics, and it gives us a pipeline to students whose imagination, ethics and critical thinking skills position them to shape cutting-edge fields like robotics and artificial intelligence. That’s a win for everyone.”
As part of the collaboration supporting Lucid Bots, students may gain access to the company’s labs and testing spaces for student-led ventures and experiments, enabling practical work alongside industry-grade tools, environments and development cycles. The partnership is intended to deepen experiential learning while strengthening connections between classroom learning, applied research and emerging technology work.
