A sign in Columbia's 'Creative Machines Lab' where they're printing out food and muscles. Hilary Brueck - Business Insider Control a robot with your mind. Bring unresponsive limbs to life. Engineer tasty, nutrient-rich food tailored to an individual's biometrics.

These are just a few of the robotics projects that Columbia University PhD students are working on in their cramped, underground labs.

Business Insider got inside for a rare tour of the spaces, and saw machines that are attempting to make broccoli taste like pizza, allow humans to control robots with their eyes, and help partially paralyzed patients move again.

Take a peek inside.