VALPARAISO — A team of robot football players brought Valparaiso University the grand prize at a national robotics competition this month in Ohio.
The VU Robotic Football team won the Brian Hederman Memorial Trophy at the Collegiate Robotic Football Conference Championship for the second consecutive year, the university announced.
Robotic football is played between two teams of eight machines following rules much like the sport played by humans. Each team attempts to push down a 30-yard field, competing for touchdowns, kicks, two-point conversions and field goals. Additional points are awarded for successfully thrown and caught passes.
The team beat the U.S. Naval Academy in the semifinals and the University of Notre Dame in the finals April 1 at Ohio Northern University.
"The final game was epic," said Lauren Kadlec, sophomore biomedical engineering student. "In the first 5 minutes, the score was 21-1. Our running back, "Falcon," a triangle-shaped robot named after the Millennium Falcon, is so fast that it managed to recover a ball kicked to the other side of the court before Notre Dame could. The final score was 75-24. It has been a crazy road to get where we are, but the entire journey has been amazing."
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The team also beat out Purdue University, Indiana Tech University and Ohio Northern University, who compete in the Collegiate Robotic Football Conference.
"I am so proud of Valpo Robotics students," said Sami Khorbotly, professor of electrical and computer engineering and advisor to the robotics team. "They are winners in class, winners in robotic competitions, and they will be winners in whatever they decide to do when they graduate."
PHOTOS: Sen. Todd Young visits Valparaiso University
Peter Krenzke, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Valparaiso University, explains his and his colleagues' research on solar energy to U.S. Sen. Todd Young in front of the solar furnace they're using for that research. Young toured various programs Tuesday and spoke with community members about the CHIPS and Science Act.
U.S. Sen. Todd Young hears from Luke Venstrom, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Valparaiso University, who explains his and his colleagues' solar energy research during Young's campus tour Tuesday.
Paityn Krout, a biomechanical engineering student at Valparaiso University shows U.S. Sen. Todd Young a vial of nanoparticles used in her class.
U.S. Sen. Todd Young watches as a Valparaiso University student shows him a system that simulates the internal muscle movement in his own arm.
Sen. Todd Young fist-bumps a high-tech prosthetic arm held by Professor Lauren Sestito during his tour Tuesday of Valparaiso University.
U.S. Sen. Todd Young tries out a technology system designed to simulate surgery at Valparaiso University's biomedical engineering program.
Bethany Luke, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and bioengineering, explains the mechanics of a suit used by Valparaiso University students during U.S. Sen. Todd Young's campus tour Tuesday. The suit measures and detects the movement of certain muscles in the body.
U.S. Sen. Todd Young speaks during a roundtable discussion Tuesday at Valparaiso University.
A group of Northwest Indiana leaders gather Tuesday at Valparaiso University to hear from and ask questions of U.S. Sen. Todd Young.
