From Roborugby to Green Economy − Students Lead the Way!

 

UCD Students prepare for Siemens RoboRugby Challenge

 

Robotic rugby players, designed by UCD Engineering students, were in training today, (Thursday 16th April), for the Siemens RoboRugby Competition final which takes place on Monday evening, 20th April, at UCD, Belfield Campus.

 

The Siemens RoboRugby design exercise for first-year Engineering and Computer Science students at UCD, provides a platform to illustrate their innovation and creative thinking in an engaging and enjoyable context. The Robots are made from thousands of individual pieces and the students are challenged to programme the robots to play a competitive game of rugby. 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. On the back of the recent Six Nations Grand Slam 21 robots will compete in this year’s competition, including ‘Terror Traction’, ‘Morpheus’, ‘Spilled Milk’ and ‘Diabotical’, to name a few.

 

Siemens, one of the world’s leading engineering companies, sees Siemens RoboRugby as an important sponsorship in terms of encouraging students to develop their ingenuity and problem-solving skills. While debate continues surrounding Ireland’s potential to become a global ‘player’ in green technologies, Siemens is investing now in encouraging undergraduate and graduate students to take an interest and develop careers in engineering, technology innovation and play a role in developing the green industry. Ireland is geographically well positioned to achieve 50% of its energy requirements from renewable resources by 2030 and could become a net global exporter of renewable energy creating a new domestic industry with significant employment.

 

According to Brian Mulkeen, UCD School of Electrical, Electronic & Mechanical Engineering, “There is no substitute for learning by doing. Since January, first-year Engineering and Computer Science students have devoted thousands of hours to designing, building and programming miniature robots to compete in the Siemens ‘RoboRugby’ final and they’ve really enjoyed it. The design and problem-solving skills they learn are an important part of an Engineering education at UCD, and the competition and prizes provide an extra incentive.“

 

Commenting on the sponsorship, Dr. Werner Kruckow, CEO, Siemens Limited said “Siemens has been a keen sponsor of the RoboRugby competition at UCD for five years. The sponsorship enables us to play our part in providing a platform for students to develop their creative and problem-solving skills. As a world leader in science and technology innovation, we encourage the development of a green technology industry and a key component of this will be the supply of qualified and skilled science and technology graduates.”

 

The Siemens RoboRugby Competition at UCD is part of the Generation 21 programme, an engineering and technology education programme developed by Siemens to encourage students from all levels, primary school through to third level, to engage with science and technology subjects and illustrate the applications of these subjects in an interactive and interesting way. Other initiatives in the Generation 21 programme include the Siemens ‘Discovery Box’ Workshop of science experiments in the areas of energy & electricity and environment & health, for 8 − 10 year olds, and the Siemens Climate Change Lecture Tour which aims to raise awareness and provide information on climate change and its implications for society, in third level colleges.

 

Siemens is one of the world’s leading engineering and electronics companies and employs more than 1100 people in Ireland.

 

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