On the eve of their trip to Turkey last week, the
balloon-popping robot built by seniors Sean Spindler-Ranta, Dave Copeland,
George Powers and their Turkish counterparts simply wasn't working.
Days later, after some tweaking once they had arrived at
Middle East Technical University in Ankara, the team won first prize in an
international engineering design competition.
The team that included Brian Roy and John Daley finished
a close second, said Cherrice Traver, associate professor of electrical
engineering and computer science, who with Prof. John Spinelli accompanied
the Union students. A third team that included Greg Williams and Kah Mun
Low also finished well, she said.
The seven Union students spent last week at METU with
the students who have been their design partners over the past several
months. The Turkish students came to Union last fall for initial design
meetings. Since then, all design work has been done over the Internet
through the College's International Virtual Design Studios.
The Union-METU teams designed their machines to navigate
a straight, curved and inclined track, finding and popping balloons along
the way.
While in Turkey, the students used some breaks for
sightseeing including a stop at Cappodocia, an area south of Ankara that
features an extensive network of tunnels and underground villages created
by early inhabitants.
For more on the IVDS program, visit the Web at: http://engineering.union.edu/me_dept/termsabroad/int_design.html