slides: TouchTomorrow Brings Crowds, Robots To WPI

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Monday, June 18, 2012

Sandy Meindersma, GoLocalWorcester Features Team

 NASA's first Centennial Challenge brought thousands of people from all over the state and beyond. In celebration of this landmark event, WPI, the first university in the nation to offer a bachelors degree in robotics engineering, hosted TouchTomorrow, a family festival with a variety of demonstrations and hands-on activities for kids of all ages.

Eleven teams qualified for NASA's Centennial Challenge, which ultimately had five teams compete for a $1.5 million prize. Three teams were privately funded; and three teams were university based. 

The Centennial Challenge was a two part challenge; teams that successfully completed Round 1 were eligible to compete in Round 2.  For Round 1, teams will were to have their autonomous robot retrieve a sample hidden in the park, under space-like conditions, and return to the launch pad.  Unfortunately, none of the robots were able to perform the sample retrieval task and no team was able to advance to Round 2. 

 

 

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