Engineering students work on their robot for the competition.

Three teams of engineering students will demonstrate their skill designing robots at the renowned Jerry Sanders Creative Design Competition March 13 and 14. The event tests the ability of students to create a robot that can accomplish a variety of tasks.  More than a dozen Valpo students are participating on the teams. 

Liz Schroeder, a senior mechanical engineering major, said discovering more about the in-depth workings of robots led her to join team Dardanos – one of the three Valpo teams participating in the competition.

“The main idea of a robot with a frame, wheels, and motor is the same for each team, but how the different components work together and the different design options for solving one challenge can be so different,” she explained.

In the competition, teams will play a large game of tic-tac-toe.  Each robot must unlock a series of cages that contain weighted balloons of various colors and carry the balloons to boxes representing each tic-tac-toe square.  Speed is crucial, but so is finesse, as teams lose points for popping balloons.

Dr. Scott Duncan, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and adviser to team Crash Test Dummies, said the Jerry Sanders Competition is a good opportunity for mechanical and electrical engineering students to work together on a project that poses design challenges similar to those they’ll face in the workplace.

“The most important part of the competition for students is that they learn from the design process in its entirety, from conception through testing and reporting,” Dr. Duncan said.

The public will have the opportunity to see demonstrations of all three robots and talk to the students who created them during the College of Engineering’s Design Expo on May 2.

Learn more about Valparaiso University’s College of Engineering at www.valpo.edu/engineering.