A Pile Of Junk Comes To Life

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Fighting robots and dancing mascots filled NDSU, for the 9th annual robotic competition.  17 teams competed for the chance make the regional competition.

Step inside NDSU’s engineering building and you might think you’re in the dome.
But there’s no bison players here, instead it’s robots.
 
“It’s what I get most excited about for fall,” says student team member Andrew Erickson.
 
“We try to be as crazy as football and other fans,” says another student team member Bradley Banken.
 
“They are honestly given a kit of random components. They’re given pvc pipe, plywood, bike tires. Crazy stuff and we expect them to come back and make the robots that you see out there,” says Bison Best Hub Director, Holly Erickson.
 
Teams were given six weeks to assemble their robot, but for Andrew Erickson’s team, this past week was especially busy.
 
“It was basically a lot of reassembling. In fact, we basically had to re-do everything this past week,” Erickson says.
 
The team’s challenge was to create a robot that can mine a cave. But that’s not the only thing teams are judged on, they’re also competing for the ‘best award.’
 
“That’s where they do a team exhibit, a marketing presentation; right now you see a lot of mascots, that’s the spirit and sportsmanship,” says Erickson.
 
This lets non-engineers like Bradley also get involved.
 
“I’m thinking about going to MSUM and doing public relations,” says Banken.
 
“I know a lot of people and students out there, some that are freshmen in college would tell you that this event has helped guide them in the right direction of what they want to be,” says Erickson.
 
So whether that’s a mechanical engineer, marketing director or professional mascot. NDSU’s robotic competition is drawing the crowds, watch out Bison.
 
Seven teams will advance to the Northern Plains Best Robotics Regionals on December 3rd at NDSU.

The seven teams advancing are Central Lakes Robotics, Breckenridge, Pelican Rapids, Northern Cass, Kinetic, Climax-Shelly and Valley City.