Schenectady, N.Y. – A team of Union engineering students will
face off against their counterparts from Dartmouth College next week on the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) TV Network's new show, Robot Rivals.
The competition will be taped on Nov. 13 in Knoxville, Tenn. The air date has not been set. Robot Rivals airs on the cable network every Friday at 9 p.m. and reruns throughout the week.
Robot Rivals, which premiered last
spring, pits student teams in a grueling competition to build a robot to
complete a task. In previous shows teams have had to build robots that climb flights of stairs or cross a river with a self-contained bridge. Each team gets access to the show's “robot laboratory” containing all kinds of components, parts, motors, wheels and assorted gizmos, and the assistance of a team of experts. The robot must be designed, built and prepared to compete in a matter
of hours.
“This competition is a great opportunity for our engineering students to show that they are some of the brightest in the nation,” said Bob Balmer, dean of engineering. “The producers of the show researched the best engineering colleges in the country and of course found Union to be one of them.”
Chosen to represent Union College are Team Captain Marissa Post, a senior from Shakopee, Minn.; Jason Fishner, a junior from Long Valley, N.J.; and Adam Reterdorf, a senior from Mayfield, N.Y. Junior Ben Porteus from South Wellfleet, Mass. was selected as an alternate team member. All of the students are majoring in mechanical engineering.
If Union defeats Dartmouth, they will advance to the second round the next day. Fourteen teams from all over the country are competing in the single elimination tournament. If Union wins in the first and second rounds they will return to Tennessee in December for the semi-finals. The champions will receive the J.F. Engelberger Trophy which is presented by the “father of industrial robotics” himself and a $2,000 prize awarded to the College's robotics club.