April 21, 2023
By Chloe Arrington

The force was strong with the teams at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering's spring 2023 ME 2110 Design Competition. The theme for the event, which took place on April 14, was Star Wars.

ME 2110: Creative Decisions and Design is a second-year design and build course that aims to teach fundamental techniques for creating, analyzing, synthesizing, and implementing design solutions, and the class concludes with a competition. This semester, all teams (Rebel, Sith, or Jedi) were required to complete a series of tasks and maneuvers with their entry build that included defeating the Imperial Walkers, retrieving a lightsaber, rescuing Baby Yoda, and destroying the Death Star. 

The award for Design Review Best in Show went to team ADD (Adam Driver Driver) with a win for the dark side, however the force was balanced with team Let Qui-Gons Be Qui-Gons taking first place in the robotics challenge. 

“We were thrilled to come out on top,” said ADD team member Miguel Dos Santos.

The team was worried about their entry placing in the competition as they had decided not to paint their machine, instead focusing on the mechanics.

“We believe that what set us apart was our attention to detail in the entire robot and our confidence in our subsystems and the robot as a whole,” he added.

Though excited for their win, the team was quick to point out the caliber of all those in the competition saying, “…we were really impressed with the level of talent and creativity from all the teams. We learned a lot from our fellow competitors.” 

Note, no Grogus were harmed during the competition.

Winning Teams