Students Complete Robotics Challenge at IPFW

Key Info

• Summer Robotics Camp featured real-life challenge
• Fourteen middle and high school students built robots to perform tasks at an oil spill
• Campers were from northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio

2012 IPFW Summer Robotcs Camp participants Print-quality image

FORT WAYNE, Ind.—Fourteen middle and high school students took on the challenge of taking the fun of robotics and applying it to a relevant issue at the recently completed Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) Summer Robotics Camp. The camp is offered in collaboration between the Department of Engineering and the College of Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science K12 Outreach.

Participants worked in teams to construct and program a VEX robot in preparation for a mini-competition that required the robots to perform specific tasks for points, using the 2012 theme “Oil Spill.” Instructors for the camp were Zesheng Chen from the Department of Engineering and Mike Dobbs of Emerging Technology Associates.

The results of the competition were:

• First Place Robot Performance: The team of Matthew Klopfenstein, Wayne Trace High School, and Jonathan Zhou, Canterbury High School
• Second Place Robot Performance: The team of Kael Bronson, Homeschool, and Alec Steele, Canterbury High School
• Tech Talk Champ: Lisa Gemmer, Medina High School
• Most Valuable Consultant: Dan Painter, Lakewood Middle School.

Other camp participants were Zachary Hensler and Nolan Sipe from Bishop Dwenger High School; Gilson Moh Jr. from Blackhawk Middle School; Logan Rigdon from Leo Jr./Sr. High; Grey Eschenbacher from Norwell High School; Gary Klopfenstein and Arlen Stoller from Wayne Trace High School; and Cecilia White from Whitko High School.

For more information, contact Carol Dostal, director of outreach programs in the College of Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science, at 260-481-6905 or dostalc@ipfw.edu.

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