CHICAGO (WBBM Newsradio) -- A robot rumble broke out at a City Colleges campus on the Northwest Side of Chicago on Friday, as engineering students at Wilbur Wright College squared off in a robotics competition.
Teams of students built a robot car with camera eyes. While the students could program their robot to avoid obstacles, they had to control the robot through an app on their phones.
The students put their robots through their paces in three competitions: an obstacle course, a soccer match and a race.
Doris Espiritu, executive director of the engineering program, said the robot competition is one way of making engineering accessible to college students. It was nice, too, to have an in-person competition after a year of working remotely, she said.
“I've seen these kids every time through Zoom but the energy is so different now," Espiritu said.
Competitor Stefany Cardenas, vice president of the Wilbur Wright Chapter of the Society of Women Engineers, said the competition is a learning experience.
"You learn how to construct a robot. You have to keep in mind the electronic components, you learn a bit about hardware, software because you are able reprogram the robot. It's touching into a little bit of the engineering field," she said.
The robots are evaluated on their performances in the different competitions. First prize was a pair of microscopes.