This semester’s ME 370 (Mechanical Design I) final competition consisted of 40 student-designed robots climbing ropes strung across Boneyard Creek, on the Bardeen Quad at Illinois. During the event on Wednesday, the student teams’ robot designs were judged based on speed, mechanics of the design, and creativity. Professors Arend van der Zande, Sam Tawfick, and Darrell Socie led the teams. Following in the tradition of previous robot races, MechSE students demonstrated their impressive creativity and hard work.
“The ME 370 robot race is now a favorite MechSE tradition!" said Tawfick. "Students hear about it and have watched it since their freshman year. By the time they take the class, they work so hard to win! Also, the skills of MechSE students are progressively increasing every semester. So, as instructors, we have to raise the challenge to keep up with our own students. This semester, the professors also built a robot to compete, but the fastest robot was one of the student teams! This was a happy moment for us.”
Read more about our faculty's efforts to improve the educational design experience of ME370 >>