Well, this was the year for our students to win the Grand Award in the annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition. I was very happy for them, as they have been working so hard for many months, and they couldn’t be a nicer group of young people – good for them!
There are many great stories of good sportsmanship I witnessed, but one stands out for me. On Saturday, the team’s laser scanner failed, and we didn’t have a spare (it costs several thousand dollars, and we have a fairly low budget). Fortunately, the team from École de technologie supérieure in Montréal, Québec had a spare that they graciously allowed us to use throughout the remainder of the competition. And we were able to help them out with a spare GPS unit because theirs didn’t seem to be compatible with the U.S. system. Basically, if it were not for the generosity of the Canadians, we would not have been in the running at all.
Another great story was the team from Bluefield State Univ. in West Virginia. They had many problems throughout the day today, but on their last run through the autonomous challenge course, had a flawless run that knocked us out of first place in that particular event. It gave me chills to see all of the teams, ours included, give them a hearty cheer as they came to the end of that run.
Yeah…I kind of like this Millennial Generation…can you tell?
Wow, how inspiring that people in competition can work together. Definitely the sort of good news which should make the front pages instead of all the bad news. Thanks for sharing, Sandy, it makes my day happier!
[...] my recent post about our autonomous vehicle team, I was commenting about how impressed I was with these students. The “Millennial [...]
Thanks, Pippa!
It should make front page news! There was some media coverage, but nothing like what the bad news seems to attract.
Glad to hear it made a happier day for you.