Nov. 17th 2006, SME S303
Morehead State University's robotics team finished among the top teams at the recent collegiate Tele-Operated Robotic Manipulator Contest in Cleveland.
The MSU team earned 2nd place honors at the contest, held in conjunction with the 2006 National Association of Industrial Technology (NAIT) Convention Nov. 15-19. A total of 14 universities participated in the event, according to Dr. Ahmad Zargari, chair of the Department of Industrial and Engineering Technology (IET).
For the contest, team members were required to design and build their own robotic manipulator without using any robotic kits or off-the-shelf robot manipulators, and also prepare a technical, detailed poster about the device which the team won 1st place in that portion of the competition. The robot was required to run an obstacle course, pick up and carry an 8-inch long piece of 1.5 inch EMT conduit and place it through a 3-inch hole at the end of the course.
In the contest, MSU competed against teams from Eastern Kentucky University, Western Kentucky University, North Carolina A&T State University, Iowa State University, Missouri State University, Central Connecticut University, University of North Dakota, Millersville University of Pennsylvania, Spoon River College, Ohio-Northern University, California Polytechnic State University, Indiana State University and the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
David Nickel, Greenup senior, ranked fourth place in the IT/IQ student contest out of the 59 students that participated. Three of Morehead State's IET students advanced to the semi-final round.
In addition to Nickel, team included: Jimmy Higdon, Springfield junior; Jace Green, Shelbyville senior; Matthew Slone, Morehead sophomore; Daniel Watson, Raceland junior; William Lindberg, Flemingsburg senior; and Brandon Osborne, Virgie senior.
Six student SME members also competed in the 2006 Fabtech International and AWS Welding Show competition in Atlanta, GA. The team was honored to compete against great engineering schools, University of Kentucky being one. The two teams ranked 5th and 6th place.
