Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Robots to storm Sylvania on Friday, Nov. 16

Photos and story by Kate Chester

Imagine a soccer match between teams of remotely-controlled robots decked out custom-designed uniforms, followed by a robot obstacle course competition. Like the visual?

If so, stop by the Sylvania Campus on Friday, Nov. 16, between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., to catch this “World Cup” of robotic showdowns. The event will take place in the College Center (CC) Building, Room 204 (formerly, the Student Success Center).

Faculty, staff and students from machine manufacturing technology, engineering, and computer science have teamed up to offer the month-long “Build-A-Bot” workshop that emphasizes cross-technical learning in a fun and engaging environment. The experience culminates in this week’s robot competition.

Students and faculty build robots in the Sylvania Machine Manufacturing laboratory.

“Over a period of four consecutive Fridays, our students – from a variety of disciplines – are taught how to build robots based on themed lessons that offer engineering-focused learning, a fabrication day, and a computer programming-focused lesson before our competition this Friday,” said Gregg Meyer, instructor of civil and mechanical engineering and the lead organizer of the workshop.

The first class session highlighted engineering concepts and included a rocket club guest speaker from Portland State University, which was followed by a demonstration hosted by the Tactical Robot team of Washington County Sheriff’s department. The second class accessed the campus machine shop, enabling students to use its new rapid prototyping equipment – 3D printing, computer controlled routers, laser cutters, 3D scanners, and a new vinyl cutter – in addition to conventional shop equipment. The how-to’s of computer programming made up the third class session prior to this week’s robot competition, and the robot uniforms were designed by student art director.

All are welcome to attend the event – and participate, by helping to control the robots’ moves via the Internet. For more information, contact Meyer at Gregg.meyer@pcc.edu.