Jul 15 2013
Students in Pennsylvania College of Technology’s electronics and computer engineering technology major recently entered projects in the IEEE Region 2 Student Activities Conference, bringing home a second-place finish.
Anthony R. Cherone, of Dover, and Daniel R. Sullivan, of Winfield, teamed to build a robot that finished second in the conference’s Micromouse Competition. The “micromouse” is an autonomous robot – no wider than 25 centimeters on any side – that must find its way from the corner of a maze to the center. Once the maze is revealed, competitors may reconfigure sensors, but they may not feed information about the maze into the robot’s programming.
Contestants are judged on the originality of the design and its success in navigating the maze.
Zachary J. Snook, a freshman from Coudersport, entered the Brown Bag Circuit Competition. This contest requires that a circuit be designed and built to solve a problem, given only a certain number of components and a given amount of time.
“The idea of this is that contestants do not know what electronic circuit they are building until the contest starts,” said Scott D. Neuhard, assistant professor of electronics and adviser for the Penn College IEEE student chapter. “He did not win, but it was a great experience for him.”
Cherone also entered the Project Showcase, displaying his “Balancing Robot,” which uses the same self-balancing principles as a Segway personal transport. The projects are judged, and a winner is decided by popular vote.