Robot Hockey Inspires Students, Fans

Joseph Polin
Phi Kappa Psi

On Monday Dec. 12, the rowdiest sports fans on campus were hunkered down in the engineering buildings, cheering on their favorite Robockey teams. A sell-out crowd in Wu & Chen Auditorium screamed themselves hoarse as miniature robots faced off at center ice, lit the lamp on power plays and checked each other into the boards in pursuit of the puck.

Each 3-on-3 match consisted of two-minute halves, with overtime and shoot-outs as necessary.  Impressively, the robots were totally autonomous. That is, students could only scream, pray and pull their hair out as their robots exhibited varying degrees of intelligence and skill. Out of the pool of 26 teams, Siddharth Ramanathan, Rajeev-Kumar Jeevagan and Neel Shah dispatched a long list of impressive teams to win the 2011 Robockey Cup.

The Robockey competition was the final project for Mechatronics, a class that includes both undergraduate engineers and Robotics Master’s candidates. The class teaches students to integrate mechanical, electrical and computational systems. In other words, they make robots.

Professor Jonathon Fiene gave his class roughly six weeks to prepare for Robockey, and he didn’t give them much else. Teams were in charge of designing the robots, building them with the laser cutter, ordering components such as wheels and motors, programming the robots from scratch and wiring everything together. In fact, the only thing that the students did not do was sleep.

When asked how many hours his team put into the project, senior mechanical engineer Max Effron responded, “It’s probably easier to count in weeks than hours. My best estimate would be a good three weeks of living and breathing Robockey.”

Considering this course involves at least four different engineering majors, the necessary time commitment sounds understandable, though no less painful. For Max and his team, the hard work paid off as they cracked the Final Four in the championship bracket. They weren’t the only ones excited; Max’s housemates, who have absolutely no background or interest in engineering, attended the event and were among the many enthusiastic fans packed into Wu & Chen.

For the students in Mechatronics, the ultimate reward was not the trophy, the screaming fans, or the free food left over that evening. Rather, the true prize was inherent to the practical nature of the class itself. Mechatronics equips students with real-world skills, such as programming, design, and trouble-shooting. Rich in theory and driven by application, the content in Mechatronics may be some of the most valuable lessons that engineering students run across at Penn. The icing on the cake: it was fun.

The Cinderella story of the day was the MEAMtreal MEAMple Leafs (MEAM is the abbreviation for the Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics major).  After technical misfortune knocked Nicholas McGill, Brett Wittmershaus, and Mike Kofron into the consolation bracket, the Leafs were faced with a tough ultimatum: win five straight matches to earn the final seed in the championship tournament, or go home. With sheer determination, some impressive engineering, and a dangerous number of all-nighters, they pulled it together and emerged from the consolation pool undefeated. They made it into the Elite Eight of the Championship bracket before being eliminated in a heart-breaking 1-0 decision.  

If the time that students dedicated to this project was nauseating, then the time that Professor Jonathon Fiene poured into Mechatronics was downright disgusting. Dr. Fiene and his team of TA’s began making preparations months before the semester even began.  The best part about teaching Mechatronics, Fiene explained, is that he has to practice what he preaches. While students were wiring motors, he was extracting the sensors from Wii remotes and soldering them to microcontrollers. While Max and Nick were programming their robots to chase after the puck, Fiene was writing software that would manage the robots, score, and timer during the competition. And as for sheer time commitment, Max Effron is not the only one who was measuring his time in weeks.

For most students, Mechatronics is their first taste of Robotics. And for those that like the taste, there are few better places to be than Penn. The University of Pennsylvania’s Robotics program ranks up there with MIT and Carnegie Mellon as one of the best Robotics programs in the country. Last year, our robotic-soccer players took first place in their division at an international competition. The physics-defying Quad Rotors (flying robots) have garnered well over seven million views on Youtube (seriously, look them up). And many other Robotics labs at Penn collect awards and accolades by the dozen.

As is true with any thriving academic entity, success is as much a product of passion as it is talent. And if three engineers chest-bumping after winning a Robotics match is any indication, I would say Mechatronics has succeeded in kindling this very passion.

Joseph is a sophomore studying mechanical engineering. You may contact him at jpolin@seas.upenn.edu.