The NIU Mars Rover Team is accustomed to building a vehicle designed for tough terrain.
Last week, the team composed mostly of engineering students demonstrated that its skills translate on water, too, by capturing first place in the university’s Recycled Boat Race.
Its October 6th triumph in the longstanding Homecoming tradition contrasted with all but one of the other five entrants whose vessels traveled barely more than a few feet before sinking. The victorious voyage capped months of designing, building and collecting recycled materials, said team president Joey Cervantes, a senior mechanical engineering major.
“We were overjoyed at the win,” Cervantes said. “We knew it was going to be very close, but we had a lot of faith in what we designed. We knew it was going to be stable, and it was going to hold up, and we knew that our rowers would do great.”
About 100 people descended on the East Lagoon to witness the competition. Among them was CEET Dean Dave Grewell, who came away impressed with the team’s performance.
“I’m really proud of the students,” Grewell said. “Throughout, they demonstrated outstanding teamwork, not only in building the boat, but in maneuvering it to victory.”
The competition challenged students to build boats from recycled materials and race them, one at a time, across the lagoon. The Mars Rover Team, whose turn came last, and one other entry made it to the finish about 160 feet away. Mars Rover’s time of two minutes and six seconds narrowly bested the other successful student team.
For Cervantes and his mates, the winning effort began long before race day.
The team had been collecting materials since last year, then spent about two weeks designing the boat and another three weeks building it, including significant weekend work, Cervantes said. The entire team contributed to the design and construction, while electrical lead Ryan Scipta and social director Gabi Krusiec piloted the boat, which they dubbed Connor 2.
The club’s usual focus is to build practical skills in autonomous path planning, robotic manipulation arms, and bioassay analysis to prepare students for a wide range of engineering careers. The Recycled Boat Race provided an outlet for the group to put its engineering skills to work outside that primary mission.
“The most important part of it was that it was a great teambuilding exercise where everyone worked together,” Cervantes said.
Now the victory will help advance the team’s rover project. The $1,000 prize, provided by The Campus Activities Board (CAB), will go toward key components, including a powerful battery, an onboard computer and science instruments. The team also plans to celebrate with a pizza party recognizing members’ work on both the boat and their prototype rover, which was part of the March of the Huskies two days later during Homecoming Week.
Cervantes thanked NIU and the CAB for providing the opportunity as well as two other CEET student organizations, the Robotics Club and Engineers Without Borders, for contributing manpower and recycled materials.
The team has its sights set on building a Recycled Boat dynasty, too.
“We’ll be back again,” Liberty Johnson, the team’s vice president, told the Northern Star. “Same purpose, same drive, same result.”
Follow the NIU Mars Rover team on Instagram. E-mail: niurover@gmail.com
