Show AAE engineers our robot (left) and Sonny looking at our wires and giving us advice (right)

We met with Sonny Sinarath and his coworkers at Air Automation Engineering (AAE) to show them our robot. After our demo, we talked to Sonny about ways to improve our cable wiring as our grabber wires would get caught in parts of our lift. He approved of our wiring box design which AAE had helped inspire two years ago. Sonny suggested we keep all the wires in one contained cable and pull it away from the lift where it could get tangled. He gave us some finger trap material, which covers and protects groups of wires, for our grabber wires. We have implemented a retractable wiring system that can pull the cable back because of Sonny’s suggestion.

Soldering the crab robot (left) and posing with Cosmics next to the iterations of Recon’s robots (right) 

Our team joined two members of Coding the Cosmics for a tour of Recon Robotics. Recon Robotics makes durable and mobile scouting robots that can access dangerous areas humans can’t. They make these robots for the police and military and they explained their extensive testing process and design iterations. The robots have a camera and other features that make them useful. It’s incredibly well built, being able to be shot out of a potato cannon and survive while weighing only 1.3 pounds. The Cosmics had invited us to attend a soldering class with them at Recon so we also learned some soldering skills while making a crab robot from a kit. We really enjoyed learning about Recon’s cool robots and practicing soldering with the Cosmics. It was super fun and we want to return to give the company a robot demo.

Speaking with Ms. Essig over Zoom

Our team contacted the counselor of Biomedical Engineering (BME) Admissions at the University of Minnesota and we set up a zoom call to speak with her. Ms. Essig spoke about the general setup of both the BME and general engineering paths that the University had. She explained the class outline for someone majoring in BME and talked about what classes in the College of Science and Engineering look like. We asked her questions about research, classes, and job opportunities related to engineering. This meeting was very helpful for us as we are all preparing ourselves for college and two of our team members are planning on majoring in BME specifically. It was great to talk to Ms. Essig personally and she told us to ask if we have more questions about BME, engineering, or admissions.

Talking with the manufacturing companies and engineers at the conference

This event was a parts show for many manufacturing companies. Some of these manufacturing companies made parts such as custom circuit boards by woodcutting, laser cutting, and more. By going around and talking to many different engineers, we were able to learn a lot about different engineers. We learned about the processes that it takes to make different parts. It was very interesting to learn about all of the places that the various companies came from.

Taking a picture with the CSI engineers (left) and showing the CSI employees how to drive the robot (left)

Our team went to tour and demo the company Cardiovascular Systems Inc. (CSI). Three of the employees there gave us a tour of their manufacturing facilities. CSI primarily makes catheter controllers which are used in surgeries to remove calcified blockages in arteries. The head of the catheter is diamond coated and spins quickly which wears down the organic material blocking the artery. The employees explained the different parts of the tool and how they are made. We saw the catheter wire being woven and the head being soldered onto the tip. They even showed us the clean room where the final products are packaged and sterilized. Where there our team also presented tpo the engineers about the Freight Frenzy game, FIRST robotics, and our robot. We shared this so they had context for the design and purpose of our robot. The engineers were able to drive the robot around to see how it collects the Freight and moves with the triangular Kiwi Drivetrain. Many of them really enjoyed this and we gave them robot driver’s licenses for their achievement. We had a great time and our team members greatly appreciated seeing this part of the engineering field.