His first robot, Rover, was constructed in 1988, and was quickly followed by many other designs, including the Robotic Ants created at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab for his undergraduate thesis. James McLurkin's previous projects include two other robotic communities and some of the world's smallest robots.

In 2003, James McLurkin received the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, which is awarded to burgeoning MIT student inventors. In addition, in 2003, he was recognized by Time Magazine as one of five leading robotics engineers in their 'Rise of the Machines' feature, and by Black Enterprise magazine as a 'Best and Brightest Under 40.' In 2002, he was featured in the Lemelson Center's nationwide interactive traveling exhibit, "Invention at Play," which began at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

As an independent consultant, James McLurkin has advised many mechanical and engineering projects for clients such as Walt Disney Imagineering, Sensable Technologies, and MicroDisplay, Corp. Since 1995, he has lectured as a guest speaker at various events, for organizations such as Interval Research Inc., Dartmouth College, LEGO Advanced Design Center, the Association of Science-Technology Centers, Honda, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Smithsonian Museum, the Boston Museum of Science, and many elementary, middle and high schools. Additionally, he is dedicated to illustrating the fun and excitement in science and engineering, and has taught many classes for high school programs from physics to civil engineering, in an effort to help mold a future engineer corps.

James McLurkin holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering with a minor in mechanical engineering from MIT (1995), a master of science in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley (1999), and a master of science in computer science from MIT (2004). He is a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

Articles about James McLurkin have appeared in Fortune, Business 2.0, Turning Point Magazine, Popular Mechanics, and Smithsonian. He has been interviewed or featured on PBS's NOVA, CNN Headline News, and CNN Cool Science. His robots have been featured in the 'Invention at Play' exhibit, a national interactive traveling exhibit designed to explore the correlation of play and creativity in the process of invention, from the past to the present.