Students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison robotics team are celebrating a big win after they took home the top prize at the Land O’ Lakes “Bot Shot” competition last Sunday.
UW-Madison joined students from the South Dakota State University in a share of the championship title. Each team was awarded a $10,000 prize, and had an opportunity to take on basketball legends David Robinson and Christian Laettner in a skills challenge.
Land O’ Lakes President and CEO Beth Ford said the students at the event demonstrated “an exhibition of innovation and creativity — as well as competitive spirit.”
“The talent on display here makes me excited and hopeful for the next generation of problem solvers,” she said. “We know solving society’s greatest challenges depends on their success.”
We came, we saw, we got buckets.
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— Land O'Lakes, Inc. (@LandOLakesInc) April 8, 2019
Last winter, the agribusiness and food corporation challenged collegiate robotics teams from across the country to design and build a robot to compete in a series of basketball shooting drills. The finalists traveled to Minneapolis for the live event, where UW-Madison bested the competition in a tense game of H-O-R-S-E.
Just days before the event, the Wisconsin Robotics team considered withdrawing from the competition altogether. Team President Nick Ackerman says its basketball shooter would “only launch a ball about two feet,” far from the height needed to hit the hoop.
“The days leading up to the competition were extremely rough,” Ackerman said. “Morale was super low. Nothing we tried seemed to make a difference.”
After speaking with the robotics consultants at Andymark Inc. — the company that supplied the mechanical and electrical parts to the collegiate robotics teams ahead of the competition — they were convinced to attend and make the best of it. With a little help from their fellow competition, they were able to fix the robot in time for tip-off.
“When we finally got it fixed and our robot shot a basketball way up in the air, the entire room just exploded with joy,” Ackerman says. “As the game of H-O-R-S-E progressed we noticed we were ahead. Considering the struggle just getting to the point, it was unreal … Something I will never forget.”
Ackerman said the Wisconsin Robotics team will use the prize money to help fund its other competition robots, including its Mars Rover prototypes set to compete in the University Rover Challenge in June.
The basketball robot used for the Land O’ Lakes competition — named “Prime” — will be retired and showcased in the team’s robotics outreach efforts to help inspire kids to pursue an interest in STEM, Ackerman said.
“What we accomplished here is only thanks to the wonderful people who helped us along the way this weekend,” he adds. “Their support is what pushed us through and taught us each an extremely important lesson: Never give up, no matter how dire the odds look.”
