Northview Grad’s Team Wins Regional Robotics Competition

April 28, 2015

Northview High School graduate Colton Sims was a member of a team that won the recent 2015 SoutheastCon Hardware Competition in Fort Lauderdale. Sims is currently a senior at the University of South Alabama and will graduate in May with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering.

Over 50 engineering colleges across the Southeastern U.S. participated in this year’s competition.

Sims and his fellow students began work on their robot – lovingly named “Betsy” – when competition rules were announced in October 2014. Their autonomous robot had to run through a maze and complete four retro-themed tasks: play Simon Says for 15-seconds, rotate a Rubik’s Cube section 180 degrees, write “IEEE” on an Etch a Sketch, and remove the top card of the deck. The robot had to drive itself up to each game, physically manipulate the game correctly, and complete all four in five minutes.

Each team had three attempts at the maze and points were awarded for each task and for the time of each run. The University of South Alabama was the only team to achieve three perfect runs – successfully completing all four tasks each time.

”I knew the students were up to something good when they showed me the working Etch-a-Sketch in February,” said faculty advisor Dr. Russ. “So I was hoping they would be competitive. But first place? That is superb! I wish I could take more credit, but they did all the work themselves – very impressive!”

The team left Mobile the Friday of the conference driving 12 hours straight to the competition location. They faced a few glitches with their robot upon arrival and worked through the night getting “Betsy” ready for the next day. Sims and the four other USA students did not sleep until the competition was over Saturday afternoon.

One of the most impressive things about this win was the meager $1,500 budget the team had to work with to build the robot itself – compared to the several thousand dollars some of the other leading teams had. Team Captain Andrew Braun gives high praise to the College of Engineering.

Pictured top: University of South Alabama students accepting their trophy at the 2015 IEEE SoutheastCon Awards Banquet. From left, Northview graduate Colton Sims and fellow students Jan Hellmich, Andrew Braun, SoutheastCon Representative, Nicholas Carroll, and Kenneth Leggett. Pictured inset: The team’s robot “Betsy”. Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

Comments

7 Responses to “Northview Grad’s Team Wins Regional Robotics Competition”

  1. Brenda on April 28th, 2015 8:58 pm

    Great job keep up the good job.

  2. aunt wanda on April 28th, 2015 5:07 pm

    Way to go Colton! I knew you could do it. Keep up the great work!

  3. Mark on April 28th, 2015 3:40 pm

    Congratulations Colton! You obviously got some smarts from your mother! :)

  4. Darla on April 28th, 2015 3:24 pm

    GREAT JOB!!!!!
    But I think I recognized a few of those parts from Uncle Bucks house.
    Bogia swamp learning has paid off once again. I’m pointing at you Colton:)

  5. BOGIAN on April 28th, 2015 7:09 am

    Great job!

  6. David Preston on April 28th, 2015 6:09 am

    Nice work Colton,, Congratulations to you and the team.

  7. Ceci Leathers on April 28th, 2015 5:26 am

    Congratulations, Colton! Sounds like a fabulous project. Excited for your upcoming graduation, too.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under FEATURE TOP STORY, Features, News