Two College of Engineering graduate students, computer engineering’s Griffin Tabor and School of Computing’s Rebecca Miles, are part of a national student team battling for supremacy on the Discovery Channel robotics competition, “BattleBots.”
The five-person “Bloodsport” team is moving up the competition ladder in this year’s season of the popular reality TV show, in which teams design and build mechanical robots that battle each other in an arena. The U’s electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering departments co-sponsored the Bloodsport team.
The next episode that features the team will be Friday, Aug. 30, at 8 p.m. on the Discovery Channel. The electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering departments will be hosting a viewing party that day from 6 to 8 p.m. where the public can see the episode two hours earlier. It will be held in the Rio Tinto Mechanical Engineering building in room 3550, and food will be provided. (See flyer below)
The University of Utah Communications science writer, Lisa Potter, recently profiled the team in the campus email newsletter, @theU. Click below to read the full story.
Two warriors face off in the center of a modern-day gladiator pit enclosed in a 2-inch-thick Lexan encasement, the only barrier between the roaring crowd and the fighters. The excitement builds, momentarily transforming the airplane hangar in Long Beach, California, into the Colosseum of ancient Rome. The combatants charge, propelling their metal masses at their adversary. A red streak traverses the arena like a bloodthirsty Roomba, spinning its 55-pound blade with menace. The mighty robot with a University of Utah logo on its back lives up to its name: Bloodsport.
Bloodsport is one of 69 robots featured in the TV show “BattleBots.” Engineers from around the world spend months perfecting their design, then building an efficient killing machine. The teams do multiple fighting rounds, and the one who wins the most matches is declared victorious. Griffin Tabor and Rebecca Miles, two engineering graduate students at the U, and their teammates created Bloodsport. The 250-pound hulk wields a deadly metal spinning blade that whirrs towards its opponents like a possessed helicopter. Bloodsport has already fought two battles, and its third will air on the Discovery Channel on Friday, Aug. 30, at 8 p.m.
