Chicago Engineering Design Team (EDT) is an engineering

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

 and robotics

Robotics

Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...

 organization made up of University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)

University of Illinois at Chicago

The University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, near the Chicago Loop...

 engineering students. It was founded in 2000. EDT is a team of electrical

Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...

, software

Software engineering

Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...

, and mechanical

Mechanical engineering

Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...

 engineers who aim to bring engineering to the next level. The organization participates in robotics competitions

Robot competition

A robotic competition is an event where robots have to accomplish a given task. Usually they have to beat other robots in order to become the best one.Most competitions are for schools but as time goes by, several professional competitions are arising....

 and organizes various engineering events at UIC.

Competitions

Chicago EDT competes in two major robotics competitions, the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC)

Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition

The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition is an annual international robotics competition for teams of undergraduate and graduate students. Teams design and build an autonomous ground vehicle capable of completing several difficult challenges. The competition is well suited to senior design...

 and the AMD

Advanced Micro Devices

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or AMD is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for commercial and consumer markets...

 Jerry Sanders Creative Design Competition (JSDC)

Jerry Sanders Creative Design Competition

The AMD Jerry Sanders Creative Design Competition is an annual robotics competition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where engineering students from around the country design and build robots to compete in a game. Each year, a new game objective is created that tests the skills of...

. IGVC is a contest in which teams from different universities build robots that can autonomously navigate an obstacle course. Each team requires expertise in electrical, software, and mechanical engineering. JSDC is a competition where teams of engineering students must build a robot which completes objectives in order to score points. This competition also has significant combat between robots, and it requires strategy and skill in addition to a good design in order to be successful.

The team began planning for the March 2008 JSDC in the fall of 2007 and started work in January 2008. A UIC senior on the team noted that the team members were, "putting in over 20 hours a week," in addition to schoolwork.

Robots

The team has developed and competed with the following robots:

• Achilles
• Ares
• Enyo
• Kronos
• Loki
• Odin
• Bob
• Scarab
• Thor

Notable Achievements

Chicago EDT has received a reputation for well built robots. Some of their achievements are:

• 2002 Fourth place overall at the JSDC
• 2004 Participation in the JSDC
• 2005 Most Creative award at the JSDC for the robot Ares
• 2006 First place overall at the JSDC for the robot Ares
• 2006 Most Innovative award at the JSDC for the robot Thor for being the only autonomous robot to score points
• 2007 Third place overall at the JSDC for the robot Thor
• 2007 Fourth place overall at the JSDC for the robot Ares
• 2007 Second place in design competition at the IGVC for the robot Achilles
• 2008 First place overall at the JSDC for the robot Ares
• 2008 Fourth place overall at the JSDC for the robot Thor
• 2009 Second place overall at the JSDC for the robot Kronos
• 2009 Winner of the demolition round at the JSDC for the robot Odin