Driven to perform engineering team hits top 10 in robotics competition

Thien Nguyen - 10 August 2019

Edmonton) The University of Alberta's RoboMaster team has earned the "Master" title in its name.

In the three years since forming, UA RoboMaster has become an accomplished team with a winning record.

At this summer's artificial intelligence RoboMaster competition in Montreal, the first competition of its kind to feature AI, the Engineering at Alberta team finished tenth. They came out of not of universities from around the world, including UC Berkeley.

It takes talent, time and ingenuity to design, build and program the seven robots the team builds annually. Team members work from the ground up, starting with the in-house designing, through to machining, computer programming, and fine-tuning.

UA RoboMaster is one of the first-ever Canadian university student groups to compete in the Final RoboMaster Challenge in Shenzhen, China.

"We're extremely motivated and dedicated to doing well in our competitions," says engineering graduate student Linjian Xiang, the club's founder and electrical team lead. "We take each loss as an opportunity to improve and better ourselves for the next time."

The team's trip to Montreal was "rewarding and inspiring" says engineering student Alexander Wright, the team's mechanical lead. "Each day was full of learning, from Canadian history to robotics and AI systems. This trip allowed us to network with other international teams exposing us to cutting-edge technologies."

RoboMaster is a great opportunity for students to dive into the world of robotics and computer programming.