Video: Underwater Robotics Competition Held At Mississippi State

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) — For three years, senior Trey Wallace has spent countless hours building and programing the best underwater robot.

This year, Wallace team along with ten other teams must prove their robot has what it takes.

“The robot has to go through an underwater obstacle course that consists of five hoola-hoops. Has to go through them as quickly as possible and return to the starting point,” says Trey Wallace.

While students maneuver their way through different courses, they must also be prepared for the unexpected.

“Some of them did it in ponds or large retainer ponds and then suddenly there is a pool. The chlorination affects the density now. They’ve got to readjust and this is what engines do we’re constantly doing it. So we want them to see the engineering is not just sitting at a desk doing math problems. Engineering is designing and then problem solve to make it work,” says Eric Heiselt.

Students from the Mississippi Coast to Northern Alabama gathered at Mississippi State University for the fourth annual Seaperch South Regional Robotics Competition.

Mentor, Michael Lane, believes this competition shows students the fun side of math and science.

“In this particular competition are able to pick up the information in an easy to digest way,” says Michael Lane.

“You can sit in a classroom and can be told that you can learn the pythagorean theorem you can be taught all these principles but until you actually see them applied there doesn’t seem to be a reason for learning it. So when you got to robotics and actually apply all these things you learn in the classroom it makes sense why you actually need to know them,” says Wallace.

Wallace says the hands-on experience helped him get accepted to Mississippi State’s engineering program.

The top two teams will head to Nationals at the University of Southern Miss in May.

 

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