Robot Show

The other day (almost a month ago now) I had the privilege of serving as a judge for the University of Minnesota's Intro to Mechanical Engineering Robot Show. I have been doing this for a few years now. It is always fun for me to see the creativity of these future engineers as they show off the fruits of their labors. (Not to mention I took the class myself while I attended the U, so I can relate and know how much fun/stressful robot building can be.) The rules for the robot are pretty simple so the outcome varies widely. Basically the robot must do something interesting for 20 to 60 seconds and must be controlled by a Arduino microcontroller. Every year I see something new and creative.

Here is one of my favorite robots I saw. This robot could reliably juggle three ping pong balls.

The thing that stood out to me this year was the obvious difference in skills between the student who have experience making and building to those that did not. This difference most often manifests itself in the complexity of the robot. And that is part of what's great about the Robot Show. Each student can work at his or her own level given the amount of skill and experience. I still believe that making and apply concepts learned in class to a real project is one of the best ways to learn. Regardless there is a significant difference between the sophistication of students who have been making and building for fun and those who are tackling it for the first time.

Attending this Robot Show each fall is both humbling and inspiring. It always makes me so proud of the students I am working with here at The Bakken. I have the pleasure of working with students half of the age of many of these college students who are working on projects and robots that are equally sophisticated and amazing. It makes me really excited to see what they will be able to do with another five to ten years of experience and skill building. I suspect it will be pretty great!

Update (1/4/2014)
Turns out, Bakken Inventors Club alumnus, Ben Pobiel was in the show. He was interviewed by a reporter of the Minnpost. http://www.minnpost.com/education/2013/12/robots-are-here-along-their-inventors. Thanks to our friend and mentor August for sharing the link since I missed Ben at the show.