Find a flame. Blow it out.
It seems simple enough, but try to build a robot that can do what most of us take for
granted at birthday parties. Or worse, try to build that robot with teammates who are half
a world – and seven time zones – away.
That's precisely what four pairs of Union College students have been doing this
year with their counterparts at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. And
this Sunday, the Union students will travel to meet the Turkish students they've
known for 16 weeks only through their design sessions over the Internet. The teams will
enter their robots in an international contest to be broadcast on Turkish television.
The students demonstrated their flame-extinguishing vehicles at a sendoff party on
Tuesday.
Each will traverse an obstacle course in search of a flame. Once it finds one, it must
extinguish it. Each robot is equipped with a flame-detection sensor with a microprocessor
that will trigger an extinguishing fan. Each team's design is unique.
“The toughest part is not the technical side, but communicating effectively with
the students at METU,” says Peter Flynn, a senior mechanical engineer.
Now in its third year, the International Virtual Design Studio is the brainchild of Ron
Bucinell, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, who co-directs the project with
Cherrice Traver, associate professor of electrical engineering/computer science.
“It is important to educate engineers who can make decisions with a global
perspective, who have the breadth of knowledge to understand the social and ethical
implications of what they are doing,” Bucinell says.
Traveling to METU this weekend are Peter Flynn, Philip Haynes, Aaron Pincus, David
Poindexter, Bill Desrochers, Dan Feldman, Bianca Prumo and Barry Baker.