The U of S students finished in first place among 40 teams from around the world that took part in the European Rover Challenge (ERC) on Sept. 5-6 in Podzamcze, Poland. The host Polish team from Bialystok University of Technology placed second, while the McGill University robotics team was third. The ERC is the biggest space robotics open air event in Europe.The U of S students had to build a rover that could handle simulated Mars exploration tasks, competing in five separate challenges: draft design, a promotional video, technical specifications, four terrain tasks and project presentation. The USST team earned a score of 456.5 points on Sunday, finishing 36 points ahead of the second-place team.
"We are so happy with our outcome, and we can't wait to get some rest. We're looking forward to continuing work on the rover, and have seen a lot of cool design ideas this weekend," the USST posted on its website.
U of S team members are available for interviews today:
Jack Fotheringham, USST president (306) 221-2353 pres@usst.ca
Austin Shirley, VP Engineering (306) 370-7954 vpeng@usst.ca
More on the USST team's entry is available here, with more information on the European Rover Challenge competition here.
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For more information, contact:
Kate Blau
Communications Officer
College of Engineering
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-7924, (306) 370-2383
kate.blau@usask.ca
James Shewaga
Media Relations Specialist
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-1851
james.shewaga@usask.ca