At the April 18, 2009 IEEE-R5 Annual Meeting & Green Technology Conference at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, UMKC SCE entered two events – the annual Robotics Competition and the Student Paper Contest. Jim Surber, a SCE undergraduate Electrical Computer Engineering student, entered a paper titled Better Clarity in Spinal Imaging.
The judges were very impressed with his paper and his presentation, and voted him the overall first place winner. This region encompasses 85 universities across twelve states (there isn’t a national competition in this event).
Prior to winning in Lubbock, he already was the UMKC delegate, having won the highest honor in the Northern States of the IEEE-R5. The UMKC IEEE Robotics team was ranked 14th out 31 competition entries.