Engineering students win Hackfest with firefighting robot

18 Sep 2014 - 11:27:20 in Achievement
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Cameron Shuker and Steve Richardson

Victoria University Engineering students, Steve Richardson and Cameron Shuker, took out the top prize in the first Summer of Tech mechatronics Hackfest in Wellington last weekend.

The Hackfest was one of several events in the Summer of Tech internship programme which connects students with local technology companies.

This year Grow Wellington has extended the programme to manufacturing companies looking to incorporate technology into their products.

Thirteen Victoria University students set out to impress potential employers with their robot wizardry skills at last Saturday's Hackfest. The students were given seven hours to complete their work. Their robots had to be able to navigate an area and identify a heat source or fire. Some teams connected their robots to social media so they were able to tweet about their progress.

Steve Richardson says he was delighted to win the event. "It was a close call. All of the teams were given the same components but our robot was the only one that used an LCD display."

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A robot on its mission at the
Summer of Tech Hackfest

The winning team was not disadvantaged by having two members compared to three for the other teams, "Cameron and I have worked together before, so we weren't worreid about giving each other criticism and this helped us."

Summer of Tech is an internship programme which connects students with local technology campanies. This year Grow Wellington has extended the programme to manufacturing companies looking to incorporate technology into their products.

Through the programme, companies obtain student interns for 10 weeks between November and February. Prospective students take part in CV clinics, site visits, hackfests and boot camps throughout the years to prepare them for future employment.

Since it began in 2006, Summer of Tech has facilitated 357 paid internships. The programme is supported by Grow Wellington, Wellington City Council and technology companies.

For further information go to: http://www.summeroftech.co.nz

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