A group of four University of Windsor engineering students must have felt a little like they were in an episode of the old television series MacGyver when they were locked in an Ottawa classroom for a night with a few basic supplies and told they had to build a fire-extinguishing robot.
But by about 5 a.m., they emerged with a successfully operating machine and claimed first prize in the annual Ontario Engineering Competition, held February 9 to 11 at Carleton University.
Winning team: Engineering students Dave Pedro, Steve Pickthall, Brian Zuccato, and Wade O'Moore show the hardware they earned at February's Ontario Engineering Competition. Pickthall is holding the team's fire-fighting robot.
Brian Zuccato (mechanical), Steve Pickthall (electrical), Wade O’Moore (mechanical) and Dave Pedro (mechanical), all fourth year engineering students, beat out 14 other Ontario teams, took home $500 each and earned the right to represent the province at the national version of the competition in Saskatoon from March 8 to 11.
“We had to uphold our reputation,” said O’Moore, noting that the University of Windsor has come in either first or second place for the last three years.
The rules of the competition were fairly simple, but the task was not. The students were placed in a classroom with some supplies: basic electrical components, a gearbox, some DC motors and batteries and an imaginary budget of $1,000 to buy additional supplies at the contest “store.” They were provided with a model cityscape and had to build a motorized robot which could sense four fires – tea lights, actually – and go to those fires and extinguish them.
“Our team and Western’s were the only ones that were able to put out all four fires,” said Pickthall.
The students were not allowed any life lines; no cell phones and no internet access were permitted. They had just completed a 10-hour train ride prior to going into the competition and had to stay up through the night to solve the problem. They went back to their hotel room, caught a few hours rest and then presented their entry to a judging panel.
“It was a highly stressful environment,” O’Moore admitted.
But just like MacGyver, they didn’t crack under the pressure.
“We decided to keep it real simple and I think that’s what won it for us,” said Pedro.
Here's what the Windsor Star had to say about the team and the competition:
Bend, don't break, rules
Windstor Star, February 26
Sometimes, when you really want to win, it doesn't hurt to bend the rules.
That was the secret to success this month for four University of Windsor students who won the Ontario Engineering Competition in Ottawa with their fire-seeking robot.
"Whoever can bend the rules the best without actually breaking them comes up with the best design," said Steve Pickthall, 22, one of the fourth-year engineering students.
Pickthall, along with Wade O'Moore, 22, Dave Pedro, 21, and Brian Zuccato, 21, will head to Saskatoon in early March for the national competition, after beating teams from every other university in Ontario.
The premise of the competition, held at Carleton University, was pretty simple: build a motorized robot that can detect fires in a model city scape, seek out the miniature blazes and extinguish them.
The competition began on a Friday night. The team arrived at Carleton at 10 p.m. and received the task. They were put in a room and had until 5 a.m. to design and build a robot that could do the job. They also had to prepare a presentation telling a panel of industry expert judges why their design was the best.
Their robot used an open circuit to turn on a fan when exposed wires touched the metal rim around tea lights, which stood in for actual building blazes.
"Some are more complicated, ours just works," said Pedro.
Instead of using points to buy supplies - the points they used to buy things were deducted from their final score - the team improvised.
"The boxes that stuff came in, that they gave us for free, we pretty much used that to build it," said Pickthall. "Ours had almost zero costs. Instead of buying stuff from the store we were scrapping together the packaging and everything else. They never said we couldn't do that."
This is where we get into rule bending territory.
"We figured if you're just doing what's expected, you're going to be doing what every other team is doing," said Pedro. "If you're working around the edge of the rules, that's how you're going to win this type of competition."
Only one other team was able to put out all the fires. But Windsor's students sealed the deal during the presentation to judges, with their witty repartee.
"That's the most hardcore part of the competition," said Pickthall. "Our presentation was by far the most unique, and the best one there. We joked around and did a lot more open-ended stuff than a lot of the other teams did. They were really technical and really dry."
Like true champions, they're taking their win in stride.
"We had a big fancy, schmancy dinner, they told us we won," said Pedro. "They gave us a trophy, they gave us some moolah, five hundred bucks each. That's pretty much it."