Dr. Eli Fromm
More than 800 of the 1,200 first-year Drexel Engineering students were challenged with the Freshman Design Robotics Competition, a race for students to design robots to autonomously detect, collect and deliver containers representing trash and nuclear waste; two teams were names as the winning finalists. The Freshman Design Robotics Competition, which took place March 18 in the Bossone Research Enterprise Center, was the culmination of a course-wide tournament involving the students of Engineering Design II.
“This tournament helps students grow in their engineering education at Drexel by introducing them to all stages of the design process and teaching them fundamental engineering principles such as analysis, problem-solving and teamwork,” said , assistant teaching professor and lead instructor for Engineering Design II.
First place was awarded to Amanda Ireland, Greg Baird and Elias Vock; second place went to Bryan Melilli, Trevor Post and Kyle Peirce. The winners of the tournament demonstrated programming, electrical and mechanical engineering design skills and worked successfully in teams to build robots that rose through many rounds of competition victoriously.
“Our faculty, staff and peer mentors were really dedicated to helping the students throughout the design process,” said Victoria Cahn, program coordinator of the Freshman Engineering Experience.
Teams were awarded points for how well their Lego-NXT robot performed against another team’s robot in this simulated environmental cleanup, including using sensors to distinguish between the trash and nuclear waste and then relaying the containers to the appropriate disposal area.
“We introduce cutting-edge engineering concepts and contemporary applications to our first-year engineering students, and their excitement and hard work make events such as this a success for Drexel,” said professor of electrical and computer engineering and associate dean and director of the freshman experience.