The University of Texas at Dallas

BattleBots Team Plans to Bounce Back

Despite a design flaw that doomed their robot in this year’s BattleBots competition, members of the Jonsson School’s Robotics Society team made the most of the experience and are already thinking ahead to next year’s competition.

“It was a real team they formed,” said their faculty sponsor, Cy Cantrell, a professor of electrical engineering and associate dean of academic affairs for the school. “Everyone participated in the building and repair activities, and teamwork is always good for engineering students.”

They also learned a lot – in very practical terms, he said – about important mechanical engineering concepts such as mechanical vibration, strength of materials and center of mass. Especially the latter. Their robot’s was too high, and that proved fatal.

But Lisa Becvarik agrees with Dr. Cantrell that the experience was well worth it.

“What I enjoyed the most was fixing our bot after each round because it allowed me to learn about the flaws in our design so that we can prevent these from happening again next year,” said the software engineering major, who just completed her freshman year.

And far from being disheartened, she’s ready for more.

“I definitely plan to compete again next year,” she said. “In fact we’re hoping to have an all-girls team for next year and build a completely new robot, design and all.”