Every spring semester mechanical engineering students gather old keyboards, scrap metal, wood and computer parts to build robots to fight for the Hornet championship trophy.

On Feb. 22, the robots fought to the death, while at tables throughout the room, the club members taught and engaged young children in math. The members worked long weeks to prepare for what parents and kids said was a great success.

The time it took for the creation of the individual robots depended on the owner’s experience and creativity.

Former competitive robotics member Joe Brown won the championship with his robot which took him many hours of designing and building.

Brown was one of the members who started the club six years ago.

Bryan Solari, senior mechanical engineering major and president of the Competitive Robotics club, said that the durability of the robots depends on the combination of time and experience.

Solari said that the time spent on the robots depends on how sophisticated the creator wants the final product to be. The creation process can range from one day to many months. Most of the robots built by the club for the competition took three full days to build, and some had spinning blades.

Families and attendants watched the blades destroy several robots in the crystal exhibition cage.

Members of the club had their robots at the show to demonstrate their work and answer any question the attendants may have had. One of the goals of the club is showing special interest in kids who are motivated to possibly pursuing a career in engineering.

“We just want everyone who comes, especially the kids, to have fun and learn. Letting them know that engineering doesn’t have boring math or science,” Solari said.

Film studies professor Alyson Buckman said the event intrigued and sparked an engineering interest in both of her children. Buckman’s son received a hands-on tutorial in programming the robots, which he greatly enjoyed.

“Hands-on events especially are good at keeping the interest of children, and mine were certainly? they enjoyed getting to run the robots and make them crash into others,” she said.

Senior mechanical engineer major Nick Smith said that he has enjoyed being in the club for two years. He just likes to grab pieces of metal or old computers to create a bot, knowing he will make it work.

Smith and Solari invite all majors to come to the club, since anyone can use their imagination in the creation process.

“It really doesn’t take much to build one robot, and once you have done one, it’s a lot of fun,” Smith said.

Senior history major Nicholas Moore came to the club through the invitation of an engineering major friend. Moore came to check it out, and even though he is not an engineering major, he decided to sign up. He has been with the club for over two years.

“There is not a club on campus that has so much fun as we do,” Moore said.

Stephanie Lindsay, Parallax Inc. editor and Sacramento State alumna, continues to support and show a variety of education programs to engineering students, as she returns back to her Sac State roots.

One of the ways Lindsay and her husband make engineering education fun is by offering free workshops at the Parallax Inc., Rocklin location. They teach elementary through college teachers.

“By preparing the teachers we are educating the students, we find that technology literacy is required when students go into different fields, ” Lindsay said.

Solari said that every year many parents thank the club for the wide variety of projects that are displayed for their kids to look at.

“The main attraction of the club is the robots’ battle. We built one pound robots, and we fight them to the death,” Solari said.

Karina Yepez can be reached at [email protected].