WATCH: Engineering students went head-to-head at UBC today, pitting their uniquely designed robots against one another to navigate increasingly difficult terrain — and find bombs and landmines. Nadia Stewart gives us the play-by-play.
What did you used to do for class projects? For UBC Mechanical Engineering students this month, the answer was “build a robot that finds bombs”.
“We always try to have a message that the students work has some value,” says Peter Ostafichuk, the professor who oversaw the project.
“It’s beyond just a classroom exercise, beyond something that’s neat and cool, but it serves humanity in some way. We always want to try and emphasize that link between engineering and society. Engineers work to serve society.”
The second year students have been working on the project for the last four weeks. The robots searched for small magnets, representing land mines and mortar shells, in the sand. They then had to navigate an obstacle course.
“A huge part of this project is getting the students an opportunity to apply their engineering skills, the fundamental knowledge that they’ve learned in their classes, and put that towards a real-world open-ended project,” said Ostafichuk.