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Better, stronger, faster 

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Last term marked the first ever competitive robot production course involving co-op students from both computer and electrical engineering. The course was conceived with a “practical and soft skills component” according to Nawwaf Kharma who taught the inaugural year. The Engineering faculty set teams of students against each other to produce a robot capable of negotiating a maze. The quickest machine with the least costly parts (above) beat out eight other entries and was produced by Team Tigers!: Angelo Stavrow, Freddie Mvemba, Noemiliza Lanuzo and Tahir Amin.

Kharma said that the course (which he is teaching again this term, with more than twice the teams preparing to compete) is designed to become increasingly complicated. “We want the robots to become more sophisticated and carry forward the design to encourage better work.” Each term, the students will have to build on the previous students’ successes. This term, the students will run their robots through a maze twice. The first time, the machines will evaluate which of two possible routes is shorter. For the next run, they must complete their chosen course. The fastest machine wins.