First year engineers tested at annual robotics competition

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Photo of the 21st annual Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors Robot Competition
21st annual Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors Robot Competition
'Cool' robot designs took the Arctic stage on April 11 during The Ohio State University College of Engineering’s 21st annual robotics competition. 

The competition is the culmination of a challenging, semester-long design-and-build project for first-year honors students that puts their engineering skills to the test.

The Recreation and Physical Activity Center was transformed into a remote Arctic operations base for student-built robots to complete a series of tasks throughout the course. The fully autonomous robots had just two minutes to perform these tasks, including restoring the main power by raising a utility pole, delivering supplies to a maintenance building, communicating the outside weather conditions to the base and restarting an oil pumping station. 

The robots were limited in size to a 9-square-inch footprint and constructed of various materials, including sheet metal, PVC, acrylic, plywood and Erector set components.

The single-elimination tournament determined which team designed the best robot to meet the competition specifications. Teams were scored on design and how well their robots performed in individual and head-to-head runs. 

Alum Alana Pevets, Procter & Gamble, presented awards to first-place overall 21st annual robotics competition winners (from left) Jordan Sprunger, Ross Krulisky and Adam Litzler.
Alum Alana Pevets, Procter & Gamble, presented awards to first-place overall 21st annual robotics competition winners (from left) Jordan Sprunger, Ross Krulisky and Adam Litzler.
The overall winning team included Ross Krulisky, Adam Litzler and Jordan Sprunger, who each received a $250 scholarship thanks to Procter & Gamble’s corporate sponsorship. Other corporate sponsors of the event included Shell, General Electric, Honda, ArcelorMittal and Raytheon.

Other team competition awards:
Second place overall: Amber Dock, Kyle Helfrich, Evan Kutz and Nicholas Meyer
Third place overall: Nimit Desai, Joshua Kuehn, Brannon Oiler and Ian Stamm
Fourth place overall: Michael Eisner, Connor Grooms, Colin Sasthav and Brett Whitford

Best Engineered:
First place: Amber Dock, Kyle Helfrich, Evan Kutz and Nicholas Meyer
Second place: Matthew Ferree, Kyle Hickey, Sean Nemann and Kiboh Uchida
Third place: Thomas Burnett, Zachary Frederick, Tristan Mooney and Jiawen Zhen

Most Innovative:
First place: Kyle Gersman, Chase Hemmelgarn, Nathaniel Montgomery and Matt Slaven
Second place: Katie Goodge, Larry King, Adam Merk and Emilee Sturtevant
Third place: James Bassett, Gabriel Geiger, Clayton Mason and Wesley Tsou

Most Consistent:
First place: Simon Bogason, Matthew Dexter, Sungju Park and Peter Vuyk
Second place: Ross Krulisky, Adam Litzler and Jordan Sprunger
Third place: Matias Grioni, Thomas Gullo, Scott Kevern and Colin Levis

Category: Students