From the robotics lab to island shores, Christian Hubicki bridges two worlds between futuristic professor and fan favorite on one of America’s longest-running reality shows.
Hubicki, part of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering faculty, operates out of the Aero-Propulsion, Mechatronics, and Energy Center at Innovation Park. He runs the Optimal Robotics Lab with a team of students, creating algorithms for robots to navigate complex and real-world environments.
Hubicki’s day-to-day work runs opposite to the relatively nomadic experience of being on “Survivor,” where contestants are in remote locations and must build food and shelter while competing in challenges. He is a two-time contestant on the show who always dreamed of being on the reality competition that first began in 2000.
“Getting to be on ‘Survivor’ for the first time was a dream come true,” Hubicki said. “I had been applying for years, filming my audition tapes in my graduate student robotics lab in the middle of the night so no one would see me because I was embarrassed. I was sending in those tapes and hearing nothing. Then they eventually put me on the show.”
His performance on Season 37, which aired back in 2018, was memorable. He became known for his high energy, strong intelligence and strategic gameplay, reaching the penultimate episode of the show before being voted off the island.
Hubicki returns for “Survivor 50: In the hands of the fans,” joining 23 other returning cast members. The season premieres Wednesday, Feb. 25, 8-11 p.m. ET on CBS.
“Seven years later, they remembered me,” Hubicki said. “They wanted me to be back again. It’s pretty crazy. I’m so flattered for that. Over 750 people have played this game over the course of 50 seasons of the show, and some tiny minority of us get to go, and I’m among that. How cool is that?”
Hubicki’s research at the joint college is on legged robotics, control optimization and locomotion biomechanics. He works with human-scale bipedal robots that walk on two legs as well as four-legged quadruped robots that resemble the locomotion of animals. It’s a field that drew his interest during his childhood.
“I’ve been interested in robotics since I was a young child, ever since I had a set of LEGOs that I got for Christmas,” Hubicki added. “I watched the movie ‘Short Circuit’ with the robot Johnny 5. I knew that this was for me.”
Early in his career, Hubicki had the ambition of being a robotics professor, receiving his doctorate as a dual major in robotics and mechanical engineering from Oregon State University in 2015. While serving as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgia Tech, he took a slight detour on his path to being an assistant professor at FSU. Having watched “Survivor” since his teenage years, Hubicki kept wondering how his aspiration as a robotic scientist could play on the show.
At 14 years old, he quickly became intrigued by the unique setup of “Survivor” after watching several episodes. As he advanced in his robotics career, Hubicki grew more confident that his academic and STEM learning skills could translate to a world where little technology existed.
Based on his lived experience on “Survivor” in Season 37, the parallels were quite interesting. As Season 50 awaits (which was already filmed last summer in Fiji), Hubicki appreciated his opportunity to be back another time around.
“Getting to play a second time, you have a whole different perspective,” he said. “The first time you go in, you have no idea what it’s going to be like. You watch the show, but you don’t know how it feels. You don’t know what it’s like to run around on an island and build a shelter with people who might also want to vote you out. As much as you think you know how it’s going to be, you learn a lot. And then once you’ve gone through it, you get a bead on what this is about.”
Back on campus, Hubicki and his team continue optimizing algorithms to make robots think faster and operate better in their environment. Whether it’s working with walking robots or robotic arms, he treasures creating intelligence for an object that starts as nothing but builds proficient knowledge.
His passion for the field and ability to share that with his students is why he feels fortunate.
“I’m living the dream,” Hubicki said. “I’m taking a childhood dream of doing things with robots and pairing it with an actual profession. We’re developing new cutting-edge research, publishing it and discussing it with colleagues. I feel so fortunate because you get to marry that joy, that adventure of what you love about robots with something you get to do for a living.”
One of his biggest lessons learned on “Survivor” was being able to communicate with so many different individuals. Much of his world during his professional pursuit was talking to other engineers in a lab, but on the show he realized he could talk about robotics to others from all walks of life.
It’s a teaching moment that he often relays to his students – showing how getting out of his comfort zone on “Survivor” mimics the student experience at FSU.
“What it takes is an open mind and it takes persistence,” Hubicki said. “It takes an openness to other people. And that’s exactly the thing we expect of our students here at the university. You don’t come in knowing everything you’re supposed to know, otherwise, why are you here? You must adapt to these classes that come your way, that are harder than you thought they were going to be.
“You have to persist regardless,” he added. “You go to office hours, you do homework and homework groups. It’s the same thing on this show. You need to find people you can count on, even when things get tough.”
From building robots to navigating the social dynamics of a remote island, Hubicki’s journey proves that curiosity, adaptability and persistence can take you just about anywhere.