Millikan Aquamania

30th Annual Engineering Design Competition

Tuesday, March 10, 2015, 11:00am, Millikan Pond
Download Flyer

The Mission

Aquamania

The fundamental challenge of engineering design is solving problems while meeting basic constraints. This year ME72 students formed teams to design, build, and operate, under manual and/or autonomous control, an amphibious robotic vehicle that can:

  • Access the pond under autonomous control, by traversing a ramp and operate in this mode for the first 30 seconds of the competition.
  • Successfully navigate under manual (radio) control within the water for the final 3.5 minutes of the match and efficiently navigate within and between the 3 designated zones of the competition area defined by rigid barriers, specific entry points, and a 15° ramp within the Millikan Pond competition zone.
  • Secure floating buckyballs and deposit then within scoring zones and designated goals in order to accumulate as many points as possible within each match.
  • Prevent opponents from scoring by removing their opponent’s buckyballs from scoring zones.
  • Survive and withstand 3 rounds of competition, the first two of which determine the four finalists and the third (championship) round where finalists are allowed to select and pair up with an ally of their choice from among the remaining four teams.

The Challenge

  • Each vehicle will start out with a pre-loaded buckyball, at the start of competition and must operate in this mode for the first 30 seconds of the competition while attempting to score points by depositing the pre-loaded buckyball within any of the designated scoring zones or goals.
  • Contestants will then spend the final 3.5 minutes of the match scoring as many points as possible by gathering their designated colored (blue or red) buckyballs and large balls from pre-positioned locations and depositing them into designated scoring zones or goals.
  • Bonus points will be awarded to an alliance pair if either or both vehicles can safely return back onto the starting platform and remain stationed at this location before the end of 4th period. An additional bonus is awarded if the vehicle can return to this position while holding a ball.
  • Teams may also adopt defensive strategies, which may involve removal of an opponent’s colored balls from either of the scoring zone.

2015 Sponsors:
Alcoa NorthropGrumman Energent IdeaLab MCE EAS



Team Name Team Members
AXOLOTL Sarah Asano
Basith Fahumy
Edward Fouad
Mark Lorden
KATS [Winner]

Kristin Eliason
Tammer Eweis-LaBolle
Auggie Nanz
Sheila Lo

KOOPAS Melissa Chang
Joaquin Gabaldon
Kyu Kim
Tem Gebrekristos
MILLIKAN BALLERS
David Addis
Jean Turban
Teo Wilkening
SEA BEARS Albert Yang
Thomas Arnold
Omer Subasi
Thomas Peterson
SHIPPING FLITS Rob Anderson
Naveen Tadepalli
Anup Kishore
T.O.A.D. Dan Chui
Aaron Krupp
Margaret Lee
Jalani Williams
TURTLE OF DEATH Leslie Timms
Andre Comella
Chris Couste