About a dozen robots built by UF students will put their gears in motion today for UF robot demo day.
At the event, students in the Intelligent Machine Design Laboratory class will show off the robots they have spent the entire semester building.
The course is an elective for engineering majors that allows students to combine electrical, mechanical and computer engineering to build a functional robot.
Some robots are designed to climb stairs and move objects, while one robot is controlled by a student’s brain.
The demonstrations are free and open to the public and will be held in the New Engineering Building Harris Rotunda from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Eric Schwartz, associate director of the Machine Intelligence Lab, said although no awards are given for best robot, students gain a valuable experience.
“It may not get them a prize, but it’ll get them a job,” Schwartz said.
He said students have the ability to be creative with their designs. All the building materials for the robots are provided in class.
“People work harder if they do something they’re excited about,” he said.
Nick Cox, A 21-year-old teaching assistant for Intelligent Machine Design Laboratory, said the demo day gives the students an opportunity to inspire other students to take the class.
“They get a chance to show off what they’ve done all semester,” the UF electrical engineering senior said.
[A version of this story ran on page 13 on 12/10/2014]
