CSU, Chico Micromouse Wins the Cheese for Third Consecutive Year
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2003
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
CSU, Chico Micromouse Wins the Cheese for Third Consecutive Year
A California State University, Chico computer engineering student, Truong Pham, won first place in the Micromouse Annual contests held on May 3 at the University of the Pacific in Stockton. A second student, Thomas Harper, placed third in the design contest. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers sponsors the contests.
A micromouse is a small, self-contained, programmable robot that can negotiate and learn a maze. The typical micromouse is less than 25 cm by 25 cm (bigger than a mouse, but smaller than a river rat). The maze is composed of 256 squares that are 18 cm by 18 cm.
The Chico students, from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, pitted their micromice against others from northern California universities, the University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of Hawaii.
Pham, whose micromouse was his senior project, volunteered with “great confidence” to be the first one to put his micromouse, “Turtle,” into the maze, reported Ben Tseng, adviser to CSU, Chico’s student chapter of the IEEE. Pham’s mouse solved the maze in 47 seconds on a second try, but Pham was penalized 30 seconds for touching the mouse after it was initially placed in the maze. The playing field was leveled, however, as all the other competitors also received the time penalty for touching their micromice.
Pham received a $500 cash award, and the rotating trophy came back to Chico. This is the second time that Chico has won first place three times in a row. In 1986, 1987 and 1988, the CSU, Chico team placed first.
Thomas Harper received third place and a $200 award in a separate project- design contest for “Flex Glove.” The Flex Glove is a computer peripheral that measures how far the five fingers on one hand are bent and communicates this information to a personal computer.
John Zenor, professor in computer engineering, is the instructor of the senior project class in which the projects are designed and built.
“Teams from various departments in the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology have done exceptionally well this year. This is the third competition in which Chico’s teams have placed first-Construction Management and Manufacturing Technology teams placed first in national competitions,” said Ken Derucher, dean of the college. “Our students consistently do well in competition, and it shows the quality of education they receive-the best.”
###