It takes a commitment to be part of Cedarville University’s robotics team that competes each year in the American Society of Engineering Education Robotics competition.
The reward, however, has been beneficial for many of the students since the competition began 20 years ago.
This year, 19 engineering students — all freshmen and sophomores — -entered the “Star Spangled Defender” in the national competition held in Baltimore, Maryland, and came away with top honors. It’s the tenth time in 23 years that a Cedarville University team has won the event.
Dr. Clint Kohl, the faculty advisor said, “Every fall, I recruit new freshmen and we meet every Saturday for 16 weeks in the fall and in the spring to work on our project that we’ll take to the robotics competition. It’s a pretty big commitment for the students, but it’s been a great learning opportunity for everyone.”
This year’s winning entry was able to launch nerf balls into five “tall ship” containers and knock down four “row boat” assault vehicles attacking “Fort Henry.”
With accuracy and time being two key elements in the competition, Cedarville’s team designed a custom-printed circuit board to house the needed electronics and provide the connections, sensors, logic and a socket for the motor controllers. This work led Cedarville to the grand prize.
Since 2001, the team has acquired ten first-place finishes, four second-place finishes and four third-place finishes.