While other Mississippi State students were concluding their spring break festivities, a team of Mississippi State University students competed and placed third in the Communications Society Conference on Sensor, Mesh and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks (SECON), sponsored by the Institute of Electrical Engineering hardware competition last week. The team built a completely solar powered robotic vehicle for the yearly competition.
Senior electrical engineering major Jacob Morgan said the competition was very exciting.
“It was a good experience for everyone on the team and a great opportunity for us to demonstrate our engineering skills,” he said. “One of the most important things we learned was that no matter what the outcome, the experience gained along the way is most important.”
Bob Reese, associate professor of the electrical and computer engineering department and SECON team adviser, said the team did very well in the competition. Reese explained the competition was split into two parts. The first part, a points competition, was won by MSU.
“MSU was in first place with 271 points, followed by the University of Florida with 213 points, followed by Western Kentucky with 167 points,” he said. “In my opinion, this round was the true test of the robot’s capability from an engineering viewpoint, as it tested the consistency of the robot’s performance.”
Senior computer engineering major Ryan Wood said overall, the competition went very well, even though everything did not go as planned.
“First off, one of the connections to the robot’s processor that controls our motors failed right when we got there and luckily, we were able to pinpoint the issue rather quickly and were up and running an hour later,” Wood said. “The AstroTurf was much taller than expected, and the lights were not as intense as what we had been working with, but these things hurt all teams, not just ours.”
Senior computer engineering major Austin Lee also said the competition was not as the group expected.
“The practice courses were active from the time they were set up until the time they were taken down over 24 hours later,” Lee said. “There was a constant atmosphere of work as teams tried to fine tune their robots and their strategy.”
Lee said the MSU team in the end placed third out of approximately 50 schools.
“Though we placed third based on how the rules were written, we had the most accumulated points through the four rounds,” Lee said. “I also feel that we had one of, if not the most, consistent robot there . our robot, SPIDR, performed well and did as she was supposed to.”
Reese said the team had some poor luck when a judge made a subjective decision and assigned penalty points to the team.
“In the final round, which was basically a crowd-pleasing round to inject some excitement into the competition, MSU appeared to finish in second place with 111 points, with Western Kentucky in first place with approximately 160 points, and the University of Florida in third place with 106 points,” Reese said. “However, the final scoring gave MSU 103 points and the University of Florida 105 points … eight penalty points were given to MSU in that single round, where a penalty point was assigned by a judge watching a robot to see if its solar panels crossed over a wall boundary.”
Lee said his favorite part of the competition was going up against some of the premier engineering schools in the southeast and showing them what MSU is all about.
“As a team, we learned that sleep can be optional when the competition deadline is fast approaching,” he said. “As an individual, I learned the value of having a good group of engineers on your side.”
Wood said his favorite part of the competition was seeing all the interesting and thoughtful designs of other teams.
“Some were very similar to ours, others not so much,” he said. “We also saw many designs of ideas we have had and explored throughout the semester.”
Lee said the team received a trophy and were able to continue the winning tradition which MSU SECON teams have become known for.
“We succeeded as individuals in how we contributed, but we more importantly succeeded as a team,” Lee said.
Reese said he was proud of the team’s hard work.
“We arrived on Thursday evening and the team worked 24 hours straight from Friday a.m. to Saturday a.m. tweaking their robot’s performance,” he said. “The team upheld a proud tradition of MSU doing well in this competition.”