Mechanical engineering students win big at robotics and design competitions

CSUN’s robotics team finished first overall in the 2019 Student Design Competition, while the human powered vehicle team finished second overall in the 2019 Human-Powered Vehicle Challenge. It was the fourth year in a row that CSUN had finished in the top two overall in the challenge. The faculty advisor for the human powered vehicle team is Aram Khachatourians, and the advisor for the robotics team is Christoph Schaal.

CSUN’s student robotics team designed, built and operated a robot that could pick up a variety of balls and place them on a flat surface. CSUN’s robot had the fastest time in the competition.

“We worked really hard for this three-day competition, and it felt awesome to be able to get first place,” said senior mechanical engineering major Kevin Hernandez, leader of the 32-person CSUN robotics team. “We each broke off into sub teams to tackle the building and design of the robot. From October to the competition in March, we put in countless hours and work to be able to get a well-designed machine to compete. In the end, it all paid off.”

For the Human-Powered Vehicle Challenge, student teams had to build a human-powered vehicle to be used by the students in an obstacle course/race. Not only did they have to collaborate to create an aerodynamic machine, but they also had to train team members to complete the course. After a very tight race, the team finished second.

“When we started designing the machine, we also had to take into account who was going to ride it,” said Alex Espinoza, mechanical engineering senior and leader of the 21-person student team. “Those students had to train and get into shape for the competition. The competition was a scored design event, a men’s and women’s drag race and an endurance course that took two-and-a-half hours to complete. Though we placed second overall, it was extremely fun and exciting to be a part of it. We all worked really hard and put in so many hours.”