Upcoming Events:
- Check out our new Google Calendar for committee meeting times!
CURM - The Intersection of Robotics, Creativity, and Fun!
The date for the event is officially April 15th with location TBD!
To sign up, please go to tinyurl.com/CURM2018 and submit the form. For more details including an FAQ, please visit the main CURM page.
For those unfamiliar, the Convention for Unconventional Robotic Movement is an annual showcasing of original robots, made to move in any unconventional manner. We loosely define this as not relying on conventional wheels (like a car) or treads (like a tank). In the past, this has included a slug bot that actually leaves a trail of oil, a hopping robot with a several-foot vertical, and a robot that manipulates its center of mass to slowly inch forward.
The day of the event will go like this:
- Participants will have time to set up their projects and presentations, as well as walk around and meet each other
- Teams will give presentations to show off their robot, talk about what makes it unconventional, explain their design, and answer questions from the audience.
- Robots will be pit against each other in a fun race. All robots will be lined up together for a group photo, and then released at the same time to begin a race to a designated finish line.
- Awards will be given attributes like unconventionality, excellence of design, aesthetics, most ambitious, etc… Winning the race is far from the only way to get an award, so if building a fast robot doesn’t peak your interest, follow your heart!
- Walk around, talk to the other participants, check out some robots, and expand your network!
CURM is available to students from universities outside UT as well as invited professionals and hobbyists. This makes CURM a fantastic opportunity for networking as well! In 2017 some students found themselves with summer robotics research opportunities by networking with a guest from the Austin Robot Group.
Reasons to do CURM in a nutshell:
Build any robot you can imagine as long as it moves unconventionally. The sky isn’t even the limit! Meet other students, hobbyists, and professionals that share a passion for robotics to make friends, expand your network, and even find yourself with some cool opportunities! Gain robotics experience and add a unique project to your resume that’s fun to talk about! Food will be available at the event!
We recently held our first CURM social at Moojo’s for potential participants to meet each other, exchange ideas, and find teammates.
More will be held before the event date, so be on the lookout at #curm slack channel!
Author: Chris Gill