A team of four University of New Orleans electrical engineering students won first place in the 2011 IEEE Region 5 Student Robotics Contest held in Baton Rouge on April 16.
The winning team of Peiran Xu, Michael Giardino, Khanh Ngo and Sagar Bhattarai beat 30 other teams from Region 5 of the IEEE which is made up of Kansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wyoming and Illinois and includes more than 90 student branches.
Competitors must harvest renewable energy sources using their compact mobile robots on a predefined playing field, and utilize that energy to raise a flag. The robot that finishes the course the fastest and raises the flag the highest is declared the winner. UNO’s winning team received a first place award of $800.
The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.
To view the team’s second round run, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEFqOHOcxhg.