PlanLafayette
MCHE 201 — Final Project
Figure 1: Lafayette, LA
Where: Rougeou Hall Room 332
RSVP: Dr. Joshua Vaughan
Recently, the people of Lafayette have developed a plan for improvement and growth, aptly named PlanLafayette. The plan has great promise, and some projects are already underway. The main objectives are to Refine Government, Revitalize Neighborhoods, Reenvision Natural Resources, and Reinvent the Hub City. MCHE 201 students will design and build devices that assist in completion of some of the main objectives of PlanLafayette.
The Competition
On April 24, beginning at 4:30pm, the PlanLafayette contest will be held in Rougeou Hall, room 332. There will be two events. Prior to the two events, Dr. Vaughan will give a short presentation introducing the contest.
Design Review:From 5 — 6pm, a panel of judges will perform a design review of each machine. The teams must describe their machines quickly and clearly to the judges that visit, who will evaluate each team on aesthetics, ingenuity, and presentation.
PlanLafayette Contest:Following the design review, the student robots will compete in a head-to-head competition on the representation of Lafayette shown in Figure 1. The robots have thirty seconds to Improve Transportation, Place Scientist and Engineers in Government, Revitalize Neighborhoods, Reenvision Natural Resources, and Reinvent the Hub City.
Competition Details
The student robots will aid in each of the main objectives of the PlanLafayette mission. The details of each of these contributions is listed below.
Improve Transportation: One stated goal of the Refine Government objective of PlanLafayette is to "improve our transportation network for all users by reducing congestion and enhancing connectivity." The devices will remove traffic. In each zone of Lafayette, there is bumper-to-bumper traffic (4 sponges) that must be removed. For each piece of traffic that is not completely removed, the team will be penalized -10 points. If the traffic is only partially removed, the team will be penalized -5 points.
Place Scientist and Engineers in Government: To aid in the Refine Government objective, the evices should place scientist and engineers in office. There are two types of jobs available, high ranking jobs and low ranking jobs. At the beginning of each round of competition, each team will be given five scientist/engineers (Lego minifigures) to place into government positions. Each one placed into the high ranking job is worth 10 points. Each one placed into a low ranking job is worth 5 points.
Revitalize Neighborhoods: PlanLafayette also aims to revitalize neighborhoods. There is available housing (toy blocks) that must be collected into a team's zone of Lafayette. Each housing development completely collected into a team's zone will earn 5 points. However, if a team does a great job placing the housing (the housing is moved into the zone and is still upright), the team will earn 15 points. Housing that is only partially in a zone earns no points.
Reenvision Natural Resources: Another objective of PlanLafayette is improving the health of Bayou Vermillion. Toward this goal, each machine should collect trash and move it into the recycling zone. For each piece of trash that is completely collected into the recycling zone, the team will earn 5 points.
Reinvent the Hub City: In order to achieve the PlanLafayette goal of Reinventing the Hub City, students must be fully prepared for success. Given the recent, repeated cuts to higher education funding in Louisiana, MCHE 201 students will take responsibility for higher education funding, rather than relying on the Louisiana government. To this end, there has been an education funding account set up in Lafayette. Each team will receive 5 donations (toy gold coins) to deposit into this account. For each deposit left completely in the Education Funding account zone, 5 points will be awarded. Deposits left partially in the account earn no points.
Acknowledgements
SparkFun Electronics was kind enough to give a substantial discount on the robot kits used in this class. We are grateful for their support.
For more information, see the full set of competition rules.