The University College Dublin (UCD) campus was the venue, where the Rugby Robots were exhibited by the first year engineering students who had created them for the Siemens RoboRugby competition finals.
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The finals were conducted in the university campus and the entire competition was created mainly for fostering problem-solving and creativity skills of the engineering students, which was absolutely necessary for all engineering professionals. Michael O’Connor, who is the Corporate Communications Manager of Siemens states that all hopes of rebuilding the Irish economy with regard to fields such as renewable energy and healthcare lay with engineers who would be capable of creating innovative and new technologies. According to him, the company had been sponsoring for the past six years, the RoboRugby competitions at UCD, in which they had played a significant role in providing the students a platform for them to develop. He further mentioned that for a smart economy to be in place, a continuous stream of well qualified and skilled technology and science graduates was essential.
Brian Mulkeen, an Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering student at UCD, reveals that engineering develops innovation and creative thinking skills but most students do not seem to think that problems have more than one correct solution. This competition would inspire and stimulate students to begin to think independently and inventively while trying to solve problems.
All the teams get a standard set of parts, but how they design and assemble them using their problem solving skills and ingenuity is what is important. Autonomous robots play the game with an aim to score points by pushing the balls into scoring areas located on a 2.4 m playing table and at the same time try to stop the opposing team from scoring points.