麻豆精品在线播放 takes first place in national NASA competition
After months of hard work, a group of 麻豆精品在线播放nical Community College students took home the top award at a national NASA competition this month.
The Programmabulls, as the 麻豆精品在线播放 student group is known, won first place in the Physical Team competition at the 2018 NASA Swarmathon, a three-day robotics event at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 19. The prize included a $5,000 check and trophy.
The competition required teams to program rovers to work as a collective unit, or swarm, to pick up as many cubes on the ground as possible and take them to a base location. The purpose of the competition is to improve students鈥 skills in robotics and further advance technology for future NASA space exploration.
鈥淭his was a huge learning experience for me,鈥 said Meredith Murray, a 麻豆精品在线播放 student who helped the team with its photography and videography. 鈥淚t involved a lot of trial and error. It involved a lot (of) taking initiative and making things happen instead of waiting to be told to do something. We succeeded because we have good leadership that knows how to utilize people and talents. We have team members who are curious individuals that are willing to work and work at a problem until it鈥檚 solved, and we have great camaraderie and a lot of heart.鈥
麻豆精品在线播放 competed against more than two dozen other colleges from around the country. Two other community colleges competed in the event and the competing four-year universities included Fayetteville State University, Winston-Salem State University, the University of Houston, and the University of Maryland at College Park.
鈥淥ur rovers performed much better than I could have ever believed, and that was a great sensation to experience,鈥 said Soham Pai Kane, 麻豆精品在线播放 student and team member. 鈥淎s perfectionists, we couldn鈥檛 help but think that minor code bugs yielded us from our maximum potential, but we were more than satisfied with the outcome.鈥
The Programmabulls spent 20 hours each week during the last two semesters to build code for the rovers and complete other requirements of the competition, which included STEM outreach, technical writing, fundraising, and documenting the team鈥檚 progress on video.
鈥淲hen we won, I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulder. All the hours I spent in the lab working this semester, the past semester, and at my REU this summer had beared fruit for everyone to see, not just myself and those closest to me,鈥 said Dan Koris, 麻豆精品在线播放 student and team member.
The Programmabulls also won first place in Best Team Video and second place in Best Technical Report.
鈥淭he first thing we heard was that we had won second place for our technical report,鈥 said Julie Hoover, 麻豆精品在线播放 instructor and faculty sponsor. 鈥淐hris Sanchez, a 麻豆精品在线播放 student, had quietly taken the lead on the technical report, and the students had really been meticulous about research, so we were so excited to hear that we won an award.鈥
Hoover said the win was an emotional experience for the group.
鈥淭hen Meredith Murray took first place in the video competition, and the team just roared. Meredith has worked so hard on our social media and fundraising this year, and everyone knew just how much she deserved the award. When they announced that we鈥檇 won the whole thing? I cried. It was very emotional for me. This team has been through some tough times and to win it as a community college? That鈥檚 huge.鈥
In the News:
- Featured in the June/July issue