By TODD GOTTULA
UNK Communications
KEARNEY – Robots designed, built and programmed by students will compete in a basketball shooting contest at the upcoming “Tilt-a-Hurl” robotics competition at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
The 12th annual event, hosted by Computer Science and Information Systems artificial intelligence students, is at 11 a.m. April 15 in Otto Olsen room 224. The event is open to the public and media.
In the competition, robots will follow Midwest Instructional Computing Symposium robotics competition specifications, which has robots shooting three-point shots on a tilted robotic basketball court.
“In the implementation of their autonomous robots, student teams use advanced programming techniques and design their robots to respond to various sensors, including gyro, tach, touch, and light sensors,” said Sherri Harms, chair of the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at UNK.
“Students must develop the interplay between the physical design of their robot and the mental capacity they programmed into the robot in solving a problem,” Harms added.
Some students in the “Tilt-a-Hurl” event will also compete in the April 25 regional MICS competition in Wisconsin, which includes students from a seven-state area. UNK won the regional competition last year.
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Source: Sherri Harms, 308.865.8123, harmssk@unk.edu
Writer: Todd Gottula, 308.865.8454, gottulatm@unk.edu