Student Engineer’s Micromouse Is Amazing
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 8, 2002
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Student Engineer’s Micromouse Is Amazing
For a second year, California State University, Chico electrical engineering students took first place in the micromouse and the design portions of the Micromouse competition, hosted in Chico on May 4 and sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Four western universities competed in the micromouse competition—UC Davis, the University of Hawaii, San Francisco State University and CSU, Chico—and three universities competed in the design portion of the competition—CSU, Sacramento, University of Nevada-Reno and CSU, Chico. Four other universities attended the event but didn’t compete.
The winning micromouse, a microcomputer, must navigate a maze in the shortest amount of time. Each microcomputer can make several different attempts, “remembering” and then calculating the shortest route. Senior Jatin Patel’s micromouse completed the maze in 28 seconds. The second-place micromouse finished in 54 seconds.
The first-place winner in the design competition was a semi-autonomous vehicle, the “Micro-Mut,” designed by Omar Fathallah, Computer Engineering. “Micro-Mut” can receive voice commands to move and turn. In addition, there is a pen placed under the vehicle that allows it to write.
The second-place design was a team project by James Crowell and Erwin Lopez, Computer Engineering. The design is called a “Remote Surveillant Video Platform (RSVP)”—a wireless controlled video camera.
Every student majoring in Electrical or Computer Engineering is required to take two units of a senior project course. All three winning entries were senior projects. Ben-Dau Tseng, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is adviser to the student IEEE organization.
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