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A robot competition will be held
at Brigham Young University-Idaho from 2-3 p.m. on Thursday,
September 29 in front of the BYU-Idaho Bookstore.
Four teams,
consisting of four members, will have a chance to earn points by
having their robots autonomously complete six objectives in
three two-and-a-half minute rounds. Objectives include climbing
stairs, opening a gate, moving chairs, moving glasses to a base,
putting a CD away and placing balls into a basket.
Each team
had eight hours, divided between four building sessions, to
construct a robot using Lego MindStorms Kits and RoboLab
software.
Three
faculty judges will critique the teams on the most innovative
approach, the best mechanical structure and teamwork. Two
referees will monitor to make sure tasks are completed
correctly.
Kevin
Smith, a faculty member in the Computer Science and Engineering
Department at BYU-Idaho, is the advisor over the event. “The
main motivation is to target students in general study majors
that don’t know what to major in. We want them to learn more
about the computer science and engineering degrees and to see
how fun technology is,” Smith said.
Nathaniel
Dodds, a junior majoring in computer engineering, is the
secretary for the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) chapter at BYU-Idaho and will be a
referee over the event. “This is a fun, hands-on learning
experience. We hope to get people interested in engineering
programs,” Dodds said.
Although
the teams have already been formed, the competition was opened
to all majors and there were no pre-requisites for the
programming software. “We wanted this to be catered toward
freshmen who have no background knowledge in programming,” Smith
said.
This year
the competition includes students majoring in mechanical
engineering, construction management, computer science and
computer engineering. About one-third of the participants are
freshmen.
Dodds has
monitored teams as they’ve worked on the robots and he’s pleased
with the teams’ progress. “Teams are doing things I never
expected,” he said.
The event
is sponsored IEEE chapter at BYU-Idaho, the Academic Activities
Program and the Computer Science and Engineering Department.
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