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An effort to take the robotics lab into school classrooms and national competitions and conferences has earned recognition for the team of Lake Superior State University engineering students who were behind the design.

The group of six students was recognized this year at two competitions held at professional conferences when it presented "Mobile Robotics Workcell  Using Robotics to Lure Young Minds to Manufacturing Engineering."

Under the direction of Prof. Jim Devaprasad, the team designed and built a mobile robotics workcell that showcases various automation technologies.

"Given the national need to encourage young minds to seek careers in math and science fields, we hope to entice these individuals to the exciting opportunities in engineering and technology by demonstrating this mobile robotic workcell," said Devaprasad. "It has already been showcased many times at LSSU in the summer engineering camps and for visitors in the engineering departments."

The workcell's robot demonstrates two projects: automatic solving of a user-scrambled Rubik's cube, and the automated assembly of an automotive distributor. The unit can be taken into classrooms and exhibitions to showcase engineering and the manufacturing process. Devaprasad said it demonstrates technologies such as automated system control, machine vision, robotic tool change, and manufacturing sensors, all of which are taught to students enrolled in the robotics and automation option in the engineering programs offered through LSSU's School of Engineering and Technology.

The students completed the workcell as part of their senior project, a required part of their degree which has them design, build and demonstrate a project for a client.

Project team member Kate Kuuskman, a mechanical engineering senior from Sault, Ont., and Leith Nader, a mechanical engineering senior from Milford, presented a paper on the project that received honorable mention at the Pan American Federation of Engineering Societies Convention in Atlanta, last fall. LSSU was one of five universities invited to make presentations, along with Cornell, Michigan Tech, U.S. Air Force Academy and University of Puerto Rico.

Fellow teammate and alumnus Brad Bertels of Ironwood presented the project at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' International Conference of Manufacturing Science and Engineering in Ypsilanti. Again, LSSU was one of only five finalists invited to participate and present a technical paper. 

The project took second place in the ASME Student Design Competition behind University of Florida  Gainesville, and ahead of University of Michigan  Ann Arbor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and University of New Hampshire.

The remainder of the LSSU team included John Benjamin of Owosso; Greg Johnson of Sault Ste. Marie and Ben Mitchell of Kalkaska.

For more information about LSSU and its programs, visit http://engineering.lssu.edu.
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