By Emily Gelke '21

Over the past couple of months the Janksters, Notre Dame's robotics team, have engaged in hands-on engineering projects despite having to meet virtually. While regular robotics team activities have been impacted by Shelter-In-Place, the robotics team and it’s leaders have worked hard to find creative ways for the team to develop and improve critical engineering skills. A recent example is the Roller Coaster Challenge that students worked on during the month of October. The challenge was to build a roller coaster with 5 unique elements using only materials found in their home.  

Students were split into groups for this challenge in order to brainstorm ideas and support each other throughout the engineering design process. Using physics concepts, students created roller coasters with elements such as loops, corkscrews and hills. Students were encouraged to be innovative with their design and enjoyed the challenge. “I think it's exciting to use these unconventional materials," shared one student. "It's fun to have to think outside the box”. 

Throughout this project, the robotics students learned important documentation and collaboration skills while executing a project using the engineering design process. “I think it's so creative to do a project like this even outside of school because I was really disappointed to not be building a robot this year,” shared a student. The Roller Coaster Challenge is definitely one we’ll do again. “I think the roller coaster challenge was a really fun and interesting way to bring the hands-on aspect of robotics back (it's also been fun to try and look for things that can be used around my home).”