Preston Thompson ‘12 and Ian Mason ’12 huddled over a large table in Old Chapel Monday afternoon, getting last-minute bugs out of the little (but impressive) robot they built. Their robot, like those of their classmates, was about to perform in the final design challenge of their introduction to engineering class.
The challenge, dubbed “Meteorites from Mars in the Antarctic,” was to build a robot capable of picking up a “meteorite” in one spot and depositing it in another.
The table in Old Chapel on which the robots built by 30 teams carried out this task was made to resemble an Antarctic landscape.
For their part, Thompson and Mason enjoyed the challenge.
“It’s nice to have something you put a lot of time and effort into come out right,” Mason said. “It was really satisfying to finish it.”
“I also liked how the professors approached it,” he added. “They didn’t tell us how to do it; they just told us how to use the pieces.”
His teammate was equally happy with the experience and was also impressed with the robots his peers constructed.
“Everyone gets the same stuff to make a robot, but it’s surprising and cool to see how many variations we all come up with,” Thompson said.
Witnessing the different ways students successfully tackled the challenge is something Professor James Hedrick values.
“It’s amazing,” said Hedrick, who teaches electrical and computer engineering and coordinates the annual challenge. “It’s why I’m here.”