On Tuesday 9th November, Lab 3 at Peebles High School was visited by Isabel Stevenson from Edinburgh University, accompanied by five students. They brought a superb array of equipment and material, which was the making of two exciting robot challenges.

Teams were rapidly organised and everyone delved into creating some unique and fascinating robots. Everything needed was provided by the University, including eight radio controllers and countless servos, which were used as the robots’ wheels and arms.

The challenge was to navigate a maze, conquer a steep ramp, collect an item and take it back over the ramp to the finishing point. The competition was close as several superb robots fought for the best time. The winners boasted an impressive 1 minute, 43 seconds.

The five post graduate students were taing part in a science communication pilot scheme, in which 15 students are participating. As each of them work in various fields, 1 hour of training in mech engineering isn't a lot before being sent into the fray with robots and the high school pupils.

I asked James Blake, one of the students helping out, what a mech engineer was.
“It involves a lot of design work. Whereas a civil engineer would build a bridge and an electrical engineer would build a video player, a mechanical engineer builds things like engines and machines.” He said.
“The team I’m in at the University are building an ultrasound scanner to detect arteries. The mechanical engineer in the team has built the moving parts, allowing the device to move at a set speed and rotate, etc.”
“This sort of thing is new to me, as I’m a medical physicist, but it’s good fun and I’m enjoying it.”

3rd year pupils were challenged next, and they had to build a robot that would put a table tennis ball through a set of goals after overcoming the obstacles in their path. Once again, there was a brilliant display of ingenuity, and no two robots were alike in shape or operation. A spectacular time of 22 seconds was achieved by one robot, but everyone put in a creditable amount of effort.

“I enjoyed the whole hands on thing”, one of the 5th years commented afterwards, adding “It was good fun and I’d definitely like to do something like it again.”
Very enjoyable were the moments such as robots triumphantly defeating the assault course, while others fell apart trying to do so.
Many thanks to Isabel, her husband, all five of the wonderful students, Mrs Hill, and everyone who participated and contributed to help make the day a spectacular success.