A robotic truck was just one of the creations students put together at a two-week engineering camp at the University of New Haven.
Two dozen high school students are participating in the summer program, which teaches students design principles and how all projects can be improved.
“This idea of co-create, design, build and operate, that we learn from failure. Things need to be changed and innovated. Not everything works in the first hand,” said Maria-Isabel Carnasciali, an assistant professor at UNH.
The students learned not everything goes as planned.
“We're trying to make a ground vehicle that can automatically go over different types of terrain, drop off a flag, and um, pick up different types of rings, all automatically,” said Keith Cestaro from Old Saybrook.
The students do that by constructing the wheels for the robot on a 3D printer. Other groups are constructing helicopter blades with the printer, and some are redesigning wind turbine blades.
“We had to come up with everything by ourselves, and design everything. It was a lot of trial and error,” said Andrew Cappola from Wallingford.
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Their designs are in competition with other groups' designs and which designs work best.
“Want to make it stand out from all the other competitors,” said Rob Hao from Rocky Hill.
The students are also hoping that this experience will help them stand out if they focus on engineering in college and as a career.
