Stundents gear up for the Siemens Roborugby Challenge
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The Siemens Roborugby competition was started to increase the appeal of engineering and computer science by making it interesting and fun, while also developing the students’ lateral thinking and ingenuity skills.

While debate continues about the lack of interest in engineering, first-year Engineering and Computer Science students devoted thousands of hours to designing, building and programming miniature robots to compete in the Siemens ‘RoboRugby’ final.

Playing to a packed auditorium with an electric atmosphere, the Sir Winalot robot created by first year students Con Murphy, Shane Power and John Kirby powered its way to victory, to secure the winning title. In Siemens RoboRugby, each team starts with a standard set of parts, which means the winning design is entirely the result of the creativity, ingenuity and problem-solving skills of the team. The robots have to score points by moving balls into scoring areas on a 2.4m playing table, while also trying to prevent the opposing team from scoring.

This robotics design project is an elective module for students across most of the Engineering degree programmes in UCD.

Support interest in engineering

According to Brian Mulkeen, UCD School of Electrical, Electronic & Mechanical Engineering, “Design and problem-solving are an important part of an Engineering education. The best way to develop these skills is by solving problems and designing things! The RoboRugby project provides an interesting and enjoyable challenge, yet there is plenty of scope for innovation and creative thinking. The competition and prizes provide an extra incentive, so we are really grateful to Siemens Limited for their generous sponsorship.”

A student with her robot

Commenting on the sponsorship, Dr. Werner Kruckow, CEO, Siemens Ireland, said “The Siemens RoboRugby competition is an interesting and enjoyable event to be a part of and with growing concern over the shortage of Engineering graduates, Siemens is delighted to support a project that promotes an interest in engineering. As a company that represents innovation, Siemens is also pleased to help provide a platform for students to practise and expand their skills.”

Siemens in Ireland

Siemens has a long-standing tradition of delivering key infrastructure projects in Ireland including the first direct Trans-Atlantic cable in 1874 and Shannon Hydro-electric Scheme which continues to produce green electricity. The company recently completed the largest on-shore wind farm in Ireland for Airtricity. The first electrical railway in Ireland, the Giants Causeway tramway was built by the company in 1882 and brought holiday makers from Portrush to the great natural wonder of the North Antrim coast. More recently in 1984 Siemens delivered the overhead line system for the DART network.

Siemens is one of the world’s leading engineering and electronics companies. The company pioneered electric rail transportation with the first electric railway presented at the Berlin Trade Fair 1879. More recently the company has developed the Metro in Bangkok, Boston, Japan and Germany. Siemens has offices in Dublin, Cork and Belfast and employs more than 1100 people in Ireland.