Pellissippi State makes ‘elite eight’ in regional competition to build a robot

Pellissippi State recently made it to the “elite eight,” the last eight in an elimination round, in a regional competition calling for participants to build a robot that plays basketball. The College was one of only three two-year schools to enter.

“I’m proud of our students,” said Ken Swayne, associate professor and program coordinator of Electrical Engineering Technology. “They accomplished a great deal simply by being able to compete with some of the best engineering schools in the Southeast.”

A total of 38 college and university teams participated in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. SoutheastCon 2007 Student Hardware Competition. Any school with a student chapter of IEEE was eligible to enter, but Pellissippi State, Guilford Technical Community College in North Carolina and Tidewater Community College in Virginia were the only community colleges that chose to compete. A team from Mississippi State University won this year’s competition.

The competition was March 24 in Richmond, Virginia. The IEEE is a nonprofit professional organization dedicated to the advancement of technology.

“Pellissippi State’s Electrical Engineering Technology program offers students a great deal of hands-on training in electronics, automation and microcontroller technology,” said Swayne. “We also offer a Pre-engineering transfer program.”

Students and instructors from both degree programs participated in the project, which began in September 2006. People from the Mechanical Engineering Technology program helped in the initial stages as well.

“The variety of help that came out of the three programs has encouraged collaboration and teamwork between students with different skill sets,” said Swayne.

Pellissippi State’s team consisted of EET students Scott Britt, Chris McAbee, Tim Kadri and Darrell Wood; Pre-engineering students Jeremy Brantley and Wes Forbes; and Swayne and Carl Mallette, an EET associate professor.

The group left March 22 armed with its version of a robot that plays basketball—the central theme of this year’s competition. The Pellissippi State students named their robot Robocat.

The basketball used was actually a ping-pong ball, and each half-court measured 4 by 6 feet. The robot itself was allowed to be a maximum of 12 x 12 x 12 inches. The team that scored the most points won the competition. Robots scored points by shooting the ball through a goal.

The project required an understanding of numerous engineering topics, among them, circuits, machinery and microprocessors.

“This has been a great educational experience for the students,” said Mallette. “They have learned a lot about coordinating projects and applying the things they’ve learned in the classroom.”

“The students returned from the competition already excited about trying to compete again next year,” added Swayne.

"Inside Pellissippi" is a bi-monthly electronic publication produced by the Marketing and Communications Office for the faculty and staff of Pellissippi State Technical Community College, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, P.O. Box 22990, Knoxville, Tennessee 37933-0990. All suggestions and comments should be sent to Julia Wood (jwood@pstcc.edu).

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