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The Black Bear Robotics Club provides students interested in mechanics with hands-on experience they may not find elsewhere, even in engineering classes. Members mentor future engineers through robotics competitions and build robots of their own, including a T-shirt launcher for UMaine ice hockey games.
The club was founded four years ago by sixth-year mechanical engineering student Ryan Foley. He started the club in hopes of mentoring younger robotics teams, something the club continues to do by hosting Vex robotics competitions at the University of Maine. High school and middle school teams pay a registration fee and buy kits or parts manufactured by Vex Robotics Design Systems to build their robots. Schools spend anywhere from $500 to $3,000 on their robots. The teams design their robots for a specific challenge that changes every year.
“Originally I came up here in fall 2004 after being involved in robotics competitions for four years. I knew I wanted to do it again from a mentor standpoint rather than as a student,” Foley said.
Foley and other members of the robotics club are organizing their second annual Vex robotics competition to be held March 27 in the Donald P. Corbett building. Twelve high school and middle school teams from Maine and New Hampshire competed last year and the club anticipates the event will double this year. The competition brings 100 to 200 students to UMaine and helps to build their interest in engineering.
“If a student just hears about all the work in engineering, all the math and science, but don’t hear about the fun part, they may go into something else,” Foley said. In a country where colleges and universities are not producing enough engineers, he believes it is important to show prospective students the interesting and various applications in the field.
Foley knows he will continue to mentor students in robotics. He said, “I wouldn’t be where I am today and doing what I’m doing if it weren’t for those competitions.”
During the past four years, as more people began to join the group, they expressed an interest in pursuing their own projects. Now in addition to mentoring others, the 15 to 20 active club members build robots of their own, including an automated T-shirt launcher. Christopher Hamlin, a third-year mechanical engineering student and member of the club, said “the T-shirt launcher has taken up the bulk of our time and resources over the past few years.”
The robot is designed to move on the ice during half-time at hockey games and launch T-shirts into the crowd. The club chose the project because it seemed manageable and a good opportunity to showcase their abilities. Hamlin said the project has taken longer than they first anticipated and people have questioned why the club is still working on its first project.
“People don’t understand the enormous amount of time, effort and money that goes into making what people think of as a relatively simple robot,” Hamlin said. It took the club two semesters to finish the design and payout portion of the project.
Their hard work may pay off later this month. If the club members can get access to the tools they need in time, they will finish and unveil their robot on Jan. 30 at the women’s ice hockey game against University of New Hampshire.
The robotics club may not see instant results for their work, but members do feel they are benefiting from the club. They get hands-on experience with machining tools and materials they would not have in their degree program until their third or fourth year, if they get a chance at all.
Hamlin said, “I’ve certainly learned how to use manual machining tools, which is something I was always interested in and expected to learn in engineering. You can earn your mechanical engineering degree here and never touch that if you don’t want to.” He feels he is gaining experience with how tools and materials function in real-life situations.
Club members also learn to collaborate across fields, combining different aspects of engineering to create a functioning machine.
“A big problem with engineering is that engineers graduate without knowledge of what other disciplines entail, but they all work together. Almost everything a mechanical engineer designs these days has an electrical component,” Foley said.
The club hopes to be working on new projects with more members in the future. They would like to refine their T-shirt launcher, perhaps by adding sensors and making it more autonomous. Hamlin said the club has talked about working on a greater variety of smaller projects so more members can have the experience of project leadership.
The robotics club is always looking for new and dedicated members with fresh ideas and skills. Hamlin said he believes all engineering students should be involved in some activity that gives them hands-on mechanical experience. However, both he and Foley emphasize that students in all majors can join robotics club.
“Whenever we have people show up to meetings the first time, they say they don’t know anything about robotics,” Foley said. “You don’t have to know anything about it to get involved with it. You don’t have to be an engineering major to be involved.”
Hamlin agrees the purpose of the club is to learn. “I think that anybody who is interested in building things or creative projects, anybody who has ever taken apart a printer, stands to gain something from the club,” he said.
New member and first-year electrical engineering student Anthony Nuzzo said taking things apart and putting them back together has been a way of life for him since he started deconstructing his toys as a child. He is excited to be getting experience outside of class.
“Hopefully we get a good response at hockey games and some recognition,” Nuzzo said.
