The UMKC School of Computing and Engineering Robotics Team recently attended the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Region 5 Robotics Competition, where they placed second among the 23 teams in attendance.

UMKC entered five robots in the April 18 competition held concurrently with the IEEE Region 5 Business Meeting and Conference in New Orleans, La. This is UMKC’s 11^th consecutive year to send a team to the competition.

Three robots were made by the UMKC Robotics Team and two robots were made by the electrical and computer engineering senior design students. UMKC’s competing students represented computer science, electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering programs.

“The UMKC Robot Team provides students from all disciplines and levels a chance to apply what they are learning in the classroom to an object which provides them a visual of all their hard work,” said Debby Dilks, UMKC staff member and team advisor.

“Not only do the current robot team members make lifelong friends, but they become a part of something bigger,” Dilks said. “Traditionally, right before we leave for a competition, past robot team members from all over the world send us good luck and best wishes on our Facebook page. They are just as excited as we are at this success.”

The top placing team, UMKC 1, included Matt Justus, Eric Gonzalez, Ryan Rouse and Darren Cogan. A short video of their robot competing in the final qualification round is available online.

Other robot teams and their members, by order of placement, were:

• UMKC 3: Connor Murphy, Kristen Bilgere, Stephanie Retzke and Josh Herndon
• UMKC 5: Mladen Kojic, Chuck Collins, Josh Wears, Ryan Hamilton and Sam Ringwood (Senior Design Team)
• UMKC 2: Scott McElfresh, Calvin Seever, Chase Peterson and Chris Denniston
• UMKC 4: Michael Mahoney, Feras Alabdalla, Innocent Nsoh-Awasom, Brian Ruggiero and John Koech (Senior Design Team)

UMKC Robotics is a multi-disciplinary competition team including students from the Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science degree programs. The senior design teams consist of senior students in the Electrical and Computer Engineering program. The robot team also had a business major on this year’s team. In the past, they have had biology, pharmacy, physics, chemistry, civil engineering and English majors on the team.