Electrical Engineering Students Design Smart Micromouse
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 19, 2000
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Electrical Engineering Students Design Smart Micromouse
Electrical engineering students from California State University, Chico placed second and third in the micromouse maze competition at a regional meet on April 29, in Reno, Nevada. Six West Coast universities competed in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) competition.
Student Peter Sullivan, who placed second, and the team of Jason Brown, Tyler Foreman, and Will Edmunds, which placed third, designed self-contained motorized microcomputers capable of learning their way through a maze. The winning micromice navigate the maze in the shortest amount of time. Each microcomputer can make several different attempts, “remembering” and then calculating the shortest route.
Jeff Steel won third place in the design contest. He designed a self-contained microcomputer-directed car capable of navigating its way to a predetermined point and avoiding hazards along the way. Steel’s car was equipped with a video camera so images of the hazards it encountered could be transmitted.
Ben-Dau Tseng, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is adviser to the student IEEE organization.
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