The majority of the day on Wednesday was filled with working on the final touches of our line-following robots. My group primarily focused on fixing certain bugs and improving the speed. However, just when we had our code fully working, tragedy struck. Our robot suffered damage and needed to be fully recalibrated. This took up the remainder of class. Thursday is the competition, as it was pushed back a day due to time constraints.
On Wednesday, June 1, we celebrated the many new friends we gained and our last night in Switzerland. While a few of us are on the way to Italy and some of the others off to other countries, most will be back in the U.S. within the next 24 hours. Overall I couldn’t have asked for a better trip. Not only was it a great group of students, but the professors are some of the best I have met.
Today, Thursday, June 2, was competition day. Right as class started we gathered around the courses and one by one watched our hard work pay off. It was a close contest but within the hour we had a winner—group “Verbot” (Kate and Adam). Overall, the class was not only very fun, but it also taught us many important lessons. Primarily, we learned about the importance of the design process, and how it can greatly impact the outcome of a project.
From there we dismantled our robots and said our final goodbyes. Huge thanks to all the ZHAW and UMN staff for making this trip possible.
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Ryan B.
