Student robotics teams take over VBC for AUVSI Pathfinder Symposium
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – The 35th annual AUVSI Pathfinder Symposium kicked off Monday, Aug. 26 at the Von Braun Center, highlighting exhibitors of all ages.
The event is a special opportunity for military, government, engineering and manufacturing companies to show off the latest in uncrewed defense technology and share ideas.
Registration open soon for Huntsville Parks & Rec fall break camps
An unlikely contributor to the conversation – 20 student robotics teams – fill the hallways and are a central part of the event. Symposium Chair Dimitriy Plaks said both students and engineers are here to learn from each other.
“Having them participate here and having them see what the government is saying, what the government is driving, and then having the government come in and see what the students are doing is really important,” he said.
Teams set up rotating booths displaying their robotics projects and compete for funding. Joshua from the Madison County Blue Bananas Club said he appreciates constructive feedback from engineers and his team’s robot has come a long way since last year’s symposium.
“We’ve been to a lot of different places [and] presented to a lot of different professionals,” he said. “They’ve helped us with our CAD software, helped us learn what the future of robotics is.”
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Pathfinder Education Chair Richard Collins said each team gets feedback on their projects from professionals and learns about what it’s like to work as one.
“They can see what kind of future there is in robotics and how their education is going to work for that,” he said.
Some student teams use funding from the Pathfinder Symposium to tackle real-world issues. At Whitesburg Christian Academy, the 8th-grade boy’s robotics team is engineering a solution to ocean pollution.
“We decided to fix trash from the source in rivers in third world countries where the river meets the ocean,” said one member of their team, called CTL+S’d by Grace. “You put in a hydroelectric dam with a filter that can keep trash inside the river and not in the ocean and deploy the kind of boat robots that can clean up the trash.”
General admission to view exhibits in the East Hall is free, but guests can pay for a ticket to listen to guest speakers and have communal meals throughout the day. Vice President of the Pathfinder Chapter Casey Still said profits from ticket sales are distributed among competing schools for STEM programming.
“All 100% of proceeds go to STEM, to robotics teams that compete with First Robotics, to college scholarships, and grants to teachers as well who are doing stem programs,” he said. “We like to say kids are the reason we do this.”
The exhibit hall opens to the public on Wednesday, Aug. 27 at 8 a.m.
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