November 7, 2003: Volume 59, Number 9

Engineers to take on Dartmouth in 'Robot Rivals'

A team of Union engineering students will face off against their counterparts from Dartmouth College next week on the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) TV Network's new show, Robot Rivals.

The competition will be taped on Nov. 13 in Knoxville, Tenn. The air date has not been set.

Robot Rivals premiered last spring. The show pits student teams in a grueling competition to build a robot to complete a task. In previous shows teams have had to build robots that climb flights of stairs or cross a river with a self-contained bridge. Each team gets access to the show's "robot laboratory" and a team of experts who can assist. The robot must be designed, built and prepared to compete in a matter of hours.

"This competition is a great opportunity for our engineering students to show that they are some of the brightest in the nation," said Bob Balmer, dean of engineering. "The producers of the show researched the best engineering colleges in the country and of course found Union to be one of them."

If Union defeats Dartmouth, they will advance to the second round the next day.  Fourteen teams from all over the country are competing in the single elimination tournament. If Union wins in the first and second rounds they will return to Tennessee in December for the semi-finals. The champions will receive the J.F. Engelberger Trophy which is presented by the "father of industrial robotics" himself and a $2,000 prize awarded to the College's robotics club.

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